Tárrega watch

[Richard Tarleton]

Well, yes, it was the well-known piece transcribed. Who made the transcription? Petroc didn't say.

(I meant Tai Murray btw. Apologies for my mis-typing )

I think it was Ruggiero Ricci, if it was the usual one.

The original on the guitar is "tremolo" - the melody provided by demisemiquavers played on one of the upper strings, created by the ring, middle and index fingers striking the same string with great rapidity to create a seamless flow, with the thumb striking the bass notes. It's an excercise in seamless legato. It evokes the courtyards, fountains and rills of the Alhambra and Generalife, and very beautiful it is. I learnt the piece in about 1970, and actually played it in Granada in 1972, albeit in the youth hostel rather than the Alhambra (while I was staying there an American guy turned up in a beat-up van, and from under the mounds of dirty clothes in the back produced a case containing a beautiful and costly Ramirez guitar. We swapped pieces in the evening for the benefit of the other inmates).

The violin version, on the other hand, is an exercise in staccato - is it ricochet bowing? I'm not a violinist so not sure about that. It completely misses the point of the piece, and even in the hands of great violinists (I've heard it any number of times) it sounds for all the world like an attack of hiccups. I think it's an abomination, but then I'm biased. Why do they do it?

[french frank]

I think it's an abomination, but then I'm biased. Why do they do it?

Radio 3 loves playing pieces in versions other than the original ('for a change'). That applies to plays too.

[Richard Tarleton]

Tho in this case it was the fiddler playing it as an encore at the proms, it seems - my "they" extended to violinists, and indeed the transcriber(s)!

[hmvman]

Tho in this case it was the fiddler playing it as an encore at the proms, it seems - my "they" extended to violinists, and indeed the transcriber(s)!

Yes, I would assume it to be Tai Murray's choice of encore rather than R3's. You're right that it did sound very staccato and not like the flowing guitar piece. A bit like an exercise, as you say. Now that you've raised the point it is interesting that she chose to play that out of all the things she could've done. Maybe it's her encore-of-the-moment, one she's just learnt.

I'm probably as guilty as many in picking versions of pieces other than the original when I present music talks at societies etc. And some arrangements become the 'norm' over the original - like Pictures at an Exhibition and Le Tombeau de Couperin. But now I'm getting off-topic!

[Richard Tarleton]

Suzy Klein played a Tárrega piece this morning (impeccably pronounced ) - the Gran Jota Aragonesa, a scarily virtuosic 8 minute piece combining every trick in the book whilst also being most appealing with some beguiling passages. Some well dodgy performances on You Tube but this one is most impressive, worth sticking with. I'd love to hear Joseph's verdict

[Joseph K]

Suzy Klein played a Tárrega piece this morning (impeccably pronounced ) - the Gran Jota Aragonesa, a scarily virtuosic 8 minute piece combining every trick in the book whilst also being most appealing with some beguiling passages. Some well dodgy performances on You Tube but this one is most impressive, worth sticking with. I'd love to hear Joseph's verdict

It's funny you mention this. I heard her announce the piece but never heard it - I think a shower and my own practice took precedence!

I am enjoying the piece and its performance. And yes, wow, some effects/techniques that are new to me...

[vinteuil]

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... for the record : Petroc got it right this morning announcing the Recuerdos de la Alhambra.

I see that the R3 playlist helps announcers by providing a clear diacritic - Francisco Tárrega


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[Richard Tarleton]

Delighted to hear it!

I'm afraid pre-0900 is another country these days....

[oddoneout]

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... for the record : Petroc got it right this morning announcing the Recuerdos de la Alhambra.

I see that the R3 playlist helps announcers by providing a clear diacritic - Francisco Tárrega


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Used as background music for a poetry reading. Not as tiresome as it might have been given that the poem was 'La guitarra' by Lorca, and the performance was not one that I was especially struck by. I thought it was probably not a particularly modern one, and have just found out it was Segovia.

[oddoneout]

Delighted to hear it!

I'm afraid pre-0900 is another country these days....

So it's useful to have foreign correspondents...

[oddoneout]

Delighted to hear it!

I'm afraid pre-0900 is another country these days....

So it's useful to have foreign correspondents...

[oddoneout]

Sorry about double post - PC seized up and then repeated itself - and I can't work out how to remove the surplus.

[Richard Tarleton]

Segovia can be seen wandering round the Alhambra and Generalife in this 1960s Christopher Nupen film over a soundtrack of him playing Recuerdos, at around the 30 minute mark. Today this film sounds cloyingly reverential, all of a piece with Nupen's other films around this time. As late as 1972 when I went to Granada for the first time, it was still possible to wander round a largely deserted Alhambra, with your own thoughts, the selfie generation far in the future.....I had an idea someone reads the Lorca poem in the film, but can't find it on a quick skip through.

[BruceN]

Oh dear... Ian Skelly this morning

[BruceN]

... but rescued after the piece. The emphasis on the first syllable suggested he had been rapidly corrected!