JEAN PIERRE JUMEZ is a French guitarist with a passion for enlarging and publicizing the contemporary repertory of the instrument he plays so well. So it was that in the recital he gave at Carnegie Hall on Tuesday night under the sponsorship of Savarez Strings: he played only 20th‐century music, most — perhaps all — of it composed within the last quarter of a century.Let us make one thing clear: Mr. Jumez is not one of those performers with insecure technique or minimal musicianship who hope to conceal their weaknesses by playing things no one ever heard before.He began with compositions from three countries — Piotr Fanin’s Four Impressionistic Paintings (Soviet Union), Robert Luse’s “Ghost Tones” (United States) and Leo Brouwer’s « Tribute to Dance » and “The Eternal Spiral” (Cuba) — and devoted this remainder of the program to French music — Sauget’s « Falla Soliloquy ». Jolivet’s ‘Comme une danse” Poulenc’s « Sarabande », Jacques Bondon’s « Swing No. 2 », Pierre Lerich’s Three Preludes “a la Satie” and Jacques Casterede’s “Tribute to Pink Floyd.”The most interesting pieces were those by Brower, whose musical idiom is conservative but whose understanding of the instrument seemed greater than that of most of the other composers. He had hit upon some apparently new things for the guitar to do and integrated them well into his musical context. Robert Luse, on the other hand, seemed to be trying so hard to be different that he failed to achieve an integrated artwork.The most appealing work of the evening was the third of Lerich’s Preludes. At one point it featured a sweet, clear‐toned melodic line played two octaves or so above the accompaniment. It was brief and lovely and wisely left one wishing for more.
