THE LAST afternoon of the Dundee Guitar Festival was a showcase for young guitarists, nurtured by festival tutors, with some experiencing the thrill of solo performance for the first time, writes Garry Fraser.

The evening belonged to more seasoned exponents of the fretboard, and their concert in the Marryat Hall last night had the lot, classical, celtic, flamenco and jazz…performed by a selection of the world’s top artistes, just some of the brilliant guitarists who have been enticed to these festivals over the years.

Before these class acts took to the stage, however, the evening concert began with a work by the Venezuelan Alfonso Montes.

Tepuyes is a tone-poem describing the mountains of his home country and was played by the Guitar Festival Ensemble, who had been patiently working on this work all weekend. Their efforts bore fruit in an excellent performance, under the direction of Peter Stewart.

From then on the concert took on a distinctly individual form, with the festival’s artistic director and originator Alan Neave performing a selection of classical gems, of which a meticulous Bach prelude stood out.

He was then joined by celtic supremo Ian Melrose, who after a world premier performance of Gard du Nord with Alan, and a superb arrangement of a Satie gymnopedie, gave an acoustic masterclass with an aptly-named Fingerpickers Have More Fun topping his bill.

Andrew Robinson introduced some flamenco magic—his opening Morente a spectacular tour de force—before the concert ended with one who might have been considered the star turn of the evening, the legendary jazz guitarist Martin Taylor.

Taylor’s travel agenda crosses all continents and concert halls and his appearance in Dundee reflects the massive pulling power this guitar festival has. Last night was a fitting end to any musical weekend and if it is, as it is feared the last Dundee Guitar Festival, it will surely leave a massive hole in the local music scene.