SEGOVIA AT AMBASSADOR AUDITORIUM

Explanations of emotional response to music are wide-ranging and not completely convincing, just for the compositional aspect. Add a performer of the stature of Andres Segovia to the equation, and the complexity of the issue increases tenfold.

When the 92-year old guitarist took the Ambassador Auditorium stage Wednesday evening, the past entered with him. And be sure that the past glories and decades of adulation and respect were real for his audience.

It was a large crowd, filling the hall and two boxes onstage. And a surprisingly hushed, attentive one. At this time, that is more a tribute to the personal charisma of the man, than to the magic of his music.

And it was a patient group. The recital began 30 minutes late, Segovia having left the key to his guitar case at his hotel. When the delay was announced, Christopher Parkening reportedly went to the rescue. Hurrying backstage, Parkening found that the key to his guitar case would open Segovia’s case.

The short program was certainly predictable, which seemed only to add to the ceremonial nature of the recital. No Bach, and none of the more difficult Albeniz transcriptions, but otherwise vintage Segovia. He began with Narvaez, stiff and small in tone, and grew in flexibility and warmth through pieces by Sor and Haydn.

Tansman’s “Berceuse d’Orient” proved the high point in supple phrasing and balanced voicing, and on a level still with few peers. Increasingly frustrated stabs at the tuning machines disrupted much of the following music by Villa-Lobos, Castelnuovo-Tedesco and Granados, but the final Sonatina by Torroba showed Segovia can still let the good sounds roll.

One encore, a few stately bows and benign waves to his audience, and the requisite standing ovation, completed the event.