Spring Garden

Throughout Allegro's Spring Garden, stark, solo, classical guitar melodies are matched by the warm tones of a piano and joined occasionally by ambient nature noises that suggest the floral scene on the cover. While its first portion is spare and often in a minor key, by mid-album, the melodies are lighter and sunnier, suggesting that the last strains of winter have disappeared, in favor of a new spring in the garden. "New Moon" and "Sunset Reflections" are George Winston-style piano reflections, while pastoral, vaguely country & western guitars chime off of one another on "In the Morning" — it could be Dire Straits playing an acoustic set in the backyard. Spring Garden would benefit from a better integration of its nature sound recordings into the guitar and piano pieces. But, overall, it's a pleasantly relaxing set that features plenty of talented guitar work.