The title
Airoso is unfortunate, but there are ingenious things in this recital by guitarist
Hilary Field and violist
Gwen Franz, appearing on Seattle's small Yellow Tail Records label (presumably unconnected with the winery). The combination of guitar and viola, both essentially mid-range instruments, sounds odd, and the strongest piece here, indeed, is a work composed expressly for those two instruments: the Sonata by French composer
Érik Marchelie. A pleasant neo-classic score, it derives its charm largely from the ways in which the composer solves the problem of separating and then recombining the spheres of the two instruments. The infinitely malleable
Telemann also comes off well, and the players manage the junction between him and the South American music that opens the program very nicely; the
Telemann seems almost a natural development. A few pieces, notably the opening arrangement of
Piazzolla's Libertango, sound as though they're missing some of the high and low notes, but in general the gleeful variety of the duo's program more than makes up for it. Kudos are due to the album's engineering team, which produces an intimate sound unmarred by excessive instrument noise.