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The Classical Guitar thread

El Greco

Summer worshipper
El Greco
Joined
Nov 11, 2003
Messages
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There has to be some other classical guitar buff here.

Favorite performer: Raphael Rabello
Favorite composer: Agustin Barrios
Best concert you've watched: John Williams
Favorite "progressive" composition: Koyunbaba (Carlo Domeniconi)
Favorite Sor study: Op. 6 No. 11
Pieces you enjoy playing the most: Pretty much all Bach, Se ela perguntar (Dilermando Reis), Una Limosna Por El Amor De Dios (Agustin Barrios), Concierto De Aranjuez (Joaquin Rodrigo) (I didn't say "enjoy playing well", did I ?)
Favorite CD: Kostas Grigoreas - "Manos Hadjidakis's Workbook for Guitar"

My old site about Brazilian classical guitarists (which had become a point of reference on the subject, if I'm allowed the self-praise) is not up right now but I still have it available offline and I might resurrect it sooner or later.
 
I made the mistke of listening to 'The Nutcracker Suite', in classical guitar.

Not good :(
 
A feeble attempt at sounding wise about classical guitar: The soundtrack to the film The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou has some Bowie pop tunes re-done with classical guitar and sung in Portugese! These are credited to Seu Jorge. You can listen to the sound samples on your high tech computer equipment. Might be better off watching the film first, to put things in context, as there's one or two Seu Jorge performances not on the CD.
 
At my wedding we're having the the traditional Pachelbel's Canon in D played by a solo classical guitarist.

That's all I have to contribute, sorry. :(
 
El Greco said:
There has to be some other classical guitar buff here.

Favorite performer: Raphael Rabello
Favorite composer: Agustin Barrios
Best concert you've watched: John Williams
Favorite "progressive" composition: Koyunbaba (Carlo Domeniconi)
Favorite Sor study: Op. 6 No. 11
Pieces you enjoy playing the most: Pretty much all Bach, Se ela perguntar (Dilermando Reis), Una Limosna Por El Amor De Dios (Agustin Barrios), Concierto De Aranjuez (Joaquin Rodrigo) (I didn't say "enjoy playing well", did I ?)
Favorite CD: Kostas Grigoreas - "Manos Hadjidakis's Workbook for Guitar"

My old site about Brazilian classical guitarists (which had become a point of reference on the subject, if I'm allowed the self-praise) is not up right now but I still have it available offline and I might resurrect it sooner or later.
Click to expand...

ElGreco,
I have a classical guitar and a flamenco guitar, both of which I enjoy playing. Unfortunately, I've never got beyond playing classical "lollipops" because my sightreading is very poor and I'm too lazy to improve it!
John Williams has done some gorgeous recordings of pieces by Barrios, whose music he obviously admires. I also enjoy listening to the Bach Chaconne played by Narciso Yepes on the ten-string guitar he commissioned ( ...hmm...does that really count as a classical guitar?)
Regards
 
Acoustic Alchemy.

No? ...uhhh.....Jobim.

:boxedin:

OK OK confess I'm not up on this topic either. Classical guitar are nice though.
 
1984 said:
The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou has some Bowie pop tunes re-done with classical guitar and sung in Portugese!
Click to expand...

I've watched the movie and have the soundtrack as well, it was indeed very warm and original. This is the style Joao Gilberto pioneered in the 60s: A guitar playing the bossa nova and that "whispering" singing... "Orfeu Negro", "Blame it on Rio", "Next Stop Wonderland" are some other movies with excellent "acoustic" Brazilian soundtracks.

Lord Muck oGentry said:
John Williams has done some gorgeous recordings of pieces by Barrios, whose music he obviously admires. I also enjoy listening to the Bach Chaconne played by Narciso Yepes on the ten-string guitar he commissioned ( ...hmm...does that really count as a classical guitar?)
Click to expand...

Well, what can I say about Barrios... the man was a genius. I have 4 CDs with his music, the one by John Williams you mentioned, by Jesus Castro-Balbi, by David Russell and by Wolfgang Lendle. And lots of interpretations on other CDs. I like more Castro-Balbi's CD. Williams is of course perfect, but I don't like the mixing of that CD, there's too much echo that may appeal to a larger audience but to a guitarist it sounds unnatural.

Williams is one of the very few guitarists who can make a concert sound like a recording. Even the greatest guitarists will have a few glitches during a concert; a crackle here, a squeak there... guitar is not like the piano where each note will either sound perfectly or not at all. But Williams makes the guitar sound like a piano!

Yepes is also a legend and looks like he has recorded pretty much everything! I first heard all the classic Spanish stuff (Tarrega, Aguado, Albeniz etc) from his records.

I was thinking more of "classical" classical guitar and forgot to mention someone whose compositions for the guitar have left me speechless countless times: Baden Powell. He has many jazzy records (like with Herbie Mann and Stephane Grappelli), but also some jaw-dropping solo-guitar albums where he forces you to rethink what a classical guitar can do. Pick "Estudos" for example, and you'll see what I'm talking about.
 
El Greco said:
My old site about Brazilian classical guitarists (which had become a point of reference on the subject, if I'm allowed the self-praise) is not up right now but I still have it available offline and I might resurrect it sooner or later.
Click to expand...
Why isn't it up?

btw, I run a site which is also popular in the guitar community....
 
logical muse said:
Why isn't it up?

btw, I run a site which is also popular in the guitar community....
Click to expand...

What's your site ?

Mine got deleted when I changed ISP but I hadn't been updating it for 2-3 years so I figured I should do a major renewal before uploading it on a new server. But you know how things are with personal web pages, plans remain plans...

logical muse said:
This guy: Ioannis Anastassakis

More flamenco than classical. Does that count? He is Greek, so I thought that would count for something.
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I've only heard him as a name, haven't watched him play. Classical guitar is still pretty popular in Greece, although the last decade it's been declining exactly like in the rest of the world. It's too subtle for modern times. The most famous Greek guitarist is Kostas Kotsiolis, but it's really hard these days to be a concert guitarist. There's not much demand for concerts anymore...
 
HarryKeogh said:
the only classical guitarist I can name is Andres Segovia. after that...clueless.
Click to expand...

Segovia was the Lance Armstrong of classical guitar; if it wasn't for him it's possible that you (and lots of other people) wouldn't know a single classical guitarist. He was cranky and patronizing maybe, but great nevertheless. One of my teachers watched his last concert. He tells me he was so weak that he needed help to walk to the center of the stage, but as soon as he started playing everyone thought he was 20 years old.
 
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