Guitar discs

[Guest]

Nice to have a review of recent guitar records. I've been put right off young Milos's debut album both by all the hype (but then I suppose I'm not the target audience) and by the gross lapse in taste represented by the inclusion of Jeux interdits aka Romance with soupy string background (ditto).

Rincón del pedante - poor Tárrega must be the most consistently mispronounced composer on R3 - they all get it wrong, consistently. Rob Cowan even came up with a new version the other day, managing to stress the first and last syllables - a first for the Spanish language. Guys - there's an accent on the first syllable. Andrew is normally pretty good on his Spanish. Only SM-P and KD get their Spanish right all of the time, SM-P distinguishing between her Castilian and Latin American very nicely, but I haven't heard either of them say Tárrega.

[pilamenon]

Nice to have a review of recent guitar records.

Agreed! Lovely to hear some baroque guitar, too, and Moreno's refreshingly varied disc, rather than simply the comparison of familiar warhorses. Checking through the Moreno collection, I noticed Gaspar Sanz in there, including a simple piece "Lantururu" I had to perform for a beginners' recital recently. Wonderful to hear how it should be played! And a quick search unearthed this further gem on the Glossa label.

http://www.glossamusic.com/glossa/reference.aspx?id=127

Know what you mean about the Milos Karadaglic ("Milos") hype, but I too have enjoyed his disc and hope he goes on to give us plenty more, and a more comprehensive survey of guitar music from the Balkans. And Andrew is spot on about the two "on the beach" covers - except that Russell couldn't be at Aldeburgh, as he'd be sitting on shingle, not sand.

[Richard Tarleton]

"Lantururu"

A lovely little piece! "Soldier's song" apparently - I have it on a disc of Sanz on baroque guitar by Gordon Ferries (Delphinian DCD34036). How did you get on at your recital? Ferries does some lovely ornamentation. I love Sanz's music - I suppose like most people the first I heard of it was in Rodrigo's "Fantasía para un gentilhombre". I've got an excellent edition of Sanz pieces (but not Lantururu, funnily enough) ed. for guitar by Raymond Burley, Schott ED 12386, ISMN M-2201-1582-0, highly recommended and some very easy.

Everyone seems to be playing Greg Smallman guitars these days, following John Williams' example...

[johnb]

I found the review of guitar CDs both interesting and slightly frustrating.

I really disliked Milos' performance of Albeniz Granada and it came as a breath of fresh air when the David Russell recording was played. David Russell seemed much more musical in his phrasing and in maintaining the pulse of the "background" chords in the final section (a repeat of the first section that was heard played by Milos), but Russull's playing seemed to be stuck on mf with very little in the way of dynamics (something many guitarists are prone to).

Having said that I very much enjoyed how Milos played Asturias. (John Williams was .... err ... very much John Williams.)

I'm not too sure about the recordings of Tarrega's Adelita that we heard. The piece starts on the downbeat with a falling phrase (two semiquavers followed by a minim). The recordings both played the semiquavers as an upbeat and emphasised the minim. To me, the phrase should be played as a 'falling sigh' with a feeling of tenuto on the minim, rather than it being very heavily stressed (which, to me, seems crude). Mind you most guitarists, and beginner guitarists in particular, play it was was heard in the programme. (Simple pieces are often the hardest to play well!)

Moreno was pleasantly enjoyable but I can't say he gripped my attention.

[pilamenon]

A lovely little piece! "Soldier's song" apparently - I have it on a disc of Sanz on baroque guitar by Gordon Ferries (Delphinian DCD34036). How did you get on at your recital? Ferries does some lovely ornamentation. I love Sanz's music - I suppose like most people the first I heard of it was in Rodrigo's "Fantasía para un gentilhombre". I've got an excellent edition of Sanz pieces (but not Lantururu, funnily enough) ed. for guitar by Raymond Burley, Schott ED 12386, ISMN M-2201-1582-0, highly recommended and some very easy.

I surprised myself by playing all the right notes, Richard! Was pretty proud of myself, as my technique is wobbly to say the least. Followed it with another Sanz piece, Villanos, but chickened out of a third, La Esfachata de Napoles, as it was too fast. And the chamber part of the recital was rather less successful... but still a great experience for a beginner like me.

Many thanks indeed for the additional information on Sanz - I might well try to get that edition and learn a few more.

"Lantururú", what a great word - hard for a non-native speaker, though, with the accent on the last syllable!