The Beacon Herald / Saturday August 4/2001 McKenna, Ramessar blend talents for a 'delightful' recital By Garry Page For The Beacon Herald     At the Stratford City Hall auditorium Friday morning, guitarists Terry McKenna and Kevin Ramessar performed in the Director's Choice Series offered as part of the second week of the New Stratford Summer Music.     Low lighting and a table arrayed with baroque guitars, lutes, mandolins, and classical guitars set the stage for an innovative and highly intimate concert experience.     In a set of 16th century pieces comprising Rogero, and The Leaves be Green, by anonymous composers, and John Johnson's The Queen's Treble, the audience was treated to a display of delicate contrapuntal textures and highly sensitive playing from this duo.  These Elizabethan duets featured Mr. Ramessar accompanying on baroque guitar and Mr. McKenna performing on lute.  Mr. McKenna exhibited great technical dexterity on this intricate instrument.  Mr. Ramessar's beautifully played baroque guitar added warmth and colour.  Constantly changing, foot-tapping dance rhythms, clear articulation and stylistic ornamentation helped recreate these enchanting sounds from  earlier centuries.     With witty and informative commentary, Mr. McKenna introduced the audience to a set of Spanish-influenced pieces.  The Spanish Jig/Jigoletta, John Johnson's The Spanish Pavin and Richard Allison's The Spanish Measures used the full range of the lute, with crisp and rhythmic scale passages, excellent intonation and fine use of rubato.  Mr. McKenna used the intimate singing quality of the lute to delicately weave the tune in and out of the harmonies.  Both performers alternated between varied dance rhythms, from simple to compound time signatures, with consummate ease and poise.  Echoes of ornamentation between lute and baroque guitar helped create wonderful ensembling.  A good sense of space was present within the musical texture throughout this duo's recital.     There followed a set of three anonymously composed 17th century pieces taken from the social dance music and ballad tunes of the day.     Lady in the Dark, The Lord Monk's March and Welcome Home, Old Rowley, allowed for Mr. McKenna's use of a double gut-string.  This instrument incorporates lower octave strings, which helped fill out the harmonic texture of these pieces.  The sound was well-blended and melodies flowed well from one performer to the other.  However, the balance between these two instruments could have been adjusted to enhance the bass-line accompaniment.  The accelerando, co-ordination of strumming and dynamic variety combined to intensify this vivacious jig.     A tribute to traditional Irish music was next, with pieces including Bill Ellis' Hornpipe, with its sea shanty opening producing an infectious dance quality and the aptly named McKenna's Jig.     Third was an original composition by Mr. McKenna.  Belinda's Waltz and Chase (inspired by the family dog) begins with a waltz reminiscent of the Victorian parlour style.  The Chase, with its virtuosic solo performing, complete with dog bark, was a highlight of this fine recital.     In an interesting fusion of pieces, Mr. McKenna cleverly and seamlessly wove a hornpipe and strathspey, which is a traditional Scottish dance, into Beethoven's Sonatine for mandolin.  Mr. McKenna speculated as to how Beethoven might have incorporated contemporary fok music by Gow into his own music - a la Andrew Lloyd Webber meets the music of Shania Twain?  Although some purists may not have liked this tinkering, the piece worked extremely well and was highly entertaining.  Both performers demonstrated a great sense of melodic line and phrasing, sharp and clean rhythmic accuracy and good sense of style.  A few slight intonation problems between the classical guitar were evident, but this was an otherwise solid and well polished performance.     Mr. Ramessar performed 19th century composer Giuliani's Variations on "I bin a Kohlbauern Bub," Op. 49, for classical guitar.  This title, roughly translated, means "I am a Cabbage Farm Boy."  Mr. Ramessar's rendition was sheer delight as he exhibited skill and fine musicianship.  A warm singing tone with excellent intonation was generated; a solid technique showed flexibility, clarity and accuracy.  Mr. Ramessar performed with a fine sense of classical variation style.     Vivaldi's Concerto for Lute, in D major, made a fitting conclusion to this recital, featuring the solo lute mastery of Mr. McKenna and the complementary orchestral tuttis performed by Mr. Ramessar.  This work in three movements is challenging, with considerable scale flourishes and ornamentation.  The second movement contains a melancholy melody which prompted Mr. McKenna to play freely in an almost improvisatory style.  An exciting allegro with virtuosic passagework, bold dynamic contrasts and lively imitation made for a substantial ending to this delightful performance.