Manuel Barrueco: Albeniz/Granados LP on Vox, now available as part of very affordable 3-CD set. It's called something like "400 years of the Guitar" and I think it is also on Vox.
Many players consider this the greatest recording of Spanish guitar music ever (if not the greatest classical guitar recording ever).
John Williams: Albeniz, recorded in the early 80's.
Andres Segovia: The EMI recordings, 1927-1939. Amazing playing, many Spanish and Latin composers included.
Oscar Ghiglia: The Guitar in Spain LP or The Spanish Guitar of Oscar Ghiglia LP. Regularly found on Amazon.
Bream: Granados, Albeniz--Music of Spain. Sublime playing, wonderful colors and pacing from the English master. |
Paco de Lucia is the man for contemporary flamenco. For a more traditional flamenco style you might check out Paco Pena.
I personally would not mention a lot of these other good pseudo-flamenco guitarists in the same breath as them. Their dazzling chops serve up nothing interesting IMO. It's all about the music itself. YMMV. |
Azahara. It's what I'm most familiar with. I have much more of Paco de Lucia. My favorite of his is Almoraima, though I do like the newer stuff very much. |
When I was in music school it was difficult-to-impossible to find Romero fans in the guitar department of either our school or the private school nearby who thought highly of the Romeros, FWIW. But I know younger players who think the world of Pepe and Angel. |
No, just very particular tastes--as you have shown here on countless occasions.
Also, if you'll notice, I did not state a personal preference. |
Schubert, you give me too much credit but I thank you.
Ptss, I think Pepe is a great player for concertos but he makes a sound with his thumbnail which I just cannot stand. I can even pick this sound out on the car radio when I don't know who the player is. So I can't listen to his solo playing for the most part. I have heard tracks of Angel playing solo which I liked. They are not among my favorite players (Segovia, Bream, Williams, Oscar Ghighlia, Eliot Fisk, Manuel Barrueco of the older set, and Jorge Caballero, Lorenzo Michele and Ana Vidovic from the younger generation). |
Schubert, Eliot's baroque performances are just unbelievable--more like a harpsichordist than a guitarist. You should check out his Scarlatti (if you haven't already). |
Ptss, I agree that the younger players are amazing technicians. But I have a problem telling them apart, with noted exceptions (Jorge Caballero, Lorenzo Michele and Ana Vidovic). |
Ptss,
the players of old each had a "signature sound." I don't know why, but on stringed instruments these days everyone sounds so very similar for the most part. There are a few exceptions, but it's hard to tell most of them from just a few seconds of listening. |
I agree, but some makers have gone off in totally new directions which don't please everyone. I'd rather hear John Williams on his old Fleta than on a new Smallman. But, yes, overall it's a golden age for lutherie--for all instruments, it seems. There are some astounding violins and mandolins, for instance, being made these days. |
Lloyd, I've only heard a few classical guitar concerts where amplification was used. JW was one of the artists and I think the only other time was one of the times I heard the Assad Bros. I could make a long list of the fine classical guitarists I heard unamplified but it would be pointless and boring.
Now, steel string players make the amplified sound part of their presentation. Tommy Emmanuel is never without his digital reverb (Midiverb II) and Adrien Legg uses a whole host of effects. Chet Atkins mostly used an electric guitar. |
Lloydc, I saw Segovia in Jones Hall around '75 (give or take a year) and I'm nearly certain there was no amplification. I don't know that he ever played amplified anywhere.
The one time I saw Parkening was a large room in Austin and he was not amplified. He did use a ton of added reverb on his recordings, however. Some would say an excessive amount. |
Ptss, I think he's a fine composer. I really like the Op. 9 Sonata in C. Sort of Beethovenian IMO. You may know he knew LVB and played cello in the premier of the 5th and 6th symphonies... Anyway, he and Sor are my favorite of the 19th-c. composers for guitar. I do need to hear more Rigondi but I've heard lots of Aguado, Carcassi and such. |
Lloydc, perhaps those were recording mics.
I didn't notice them. I noticed the number of people with uncontrollable coughs and there were many. So it goes. |
Ptss, you should hear his EMI recordings from the 20'w and 30's. Anything but "coolish." It's not the tired old man who stayed on the concert stage decades beyond his shelf life. It's raw and gutsy playing. |
