Classical Guitar Recordings

Started by Bogey, February 10, 2008, 01:49:45 PM

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Bogey

There are a handful of threads for classical guitar, but not much in the way of listing specific recordings.  So, what specific cds do you have that you enjoy?  As always, links appreciated on the hard to get stuff.
There will never be another era like the Golden Age of Hollywood.  We didn't know how to blow up buildings then so we had no choice but to tell great stories with great characters.-Ben Mankiewicz

Bonehelm

I remember liking Rodrigo's Concierto De Aranjuez For Guitar (especially the soothing 2nd movement) on The Most Relaxing Classical Album Ever!...

But then again, perhaps no veteran classical music listener would buy these compilations...

Brian

#2
This immediately comes to mind:



My all-time favorite guitar performance; the Trio's sound is seductive and atmospheric. It's impossible for me to imagine this music any other way; in fact, I've never heard a piano performance of it that I've liked half as much. A masterpiece - "Iberia" presented with new color and depth. Listen to the Amazon samples if in doubt. :)

SonicMan46

Well, I guess you can approach this thread from two different angles, i.e. composer vs. guitarist - I have quite a few classical guitar CDs, and will start my contribution w/ a long time favorite guitarist - Christopher Parkening - he studied w/ Segovia, spent some time @ the North Carolina School of the Arts in Winston-Salem (my home town) - I've seen him 'in person' at least 3 times, and he has done a wide variety of albums; the 4 that I currently own are shown below, but much more is available:

 

 

Grazioso



Delightful quasi-exotic music played by a monster guitarist. Beautiful recording.



One of the classic classical discs.



The Segovia Collection on DG. He may not have had the pristine chops of today's greats, but he had musicality and of course great historical importance.
There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact. --Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Expresso

Bach's Lute Suites by Söllscher.

longears

OK, Bill--
You asked for favorite recordings--here are a few:

John Williams, The Great Guitar Concertos -- a 2 CD set with the Ponce, Rodrigo, Castelnuovo-Tedesco, and Villa-Lobos ctos, plus a couple by Vivaldi and Giulani.  Another fine introduction to a variety of classical guitar composers is Williams's Romance of the Guitar, which includes everything from staples of the repertoire (Asturias) to contemporary compositions like Andrew York's Sunburst.

David Russell, Aire Latino and Music of Barrios.  (John Williams and Antigoni Goni also have fine recordings of Barrios's music.)

Nick Goluses, transcriptions of Bach's solo violin sonatas and his partnering with Bonita Boyd of contemporary American music for flute and guitar.

Goran Söllscher and Patrick Gallois, Piazzolla for Two

dirkronk

My recommendations are all based on LPs, but I doubt that you'll have any problems finding their CD counterparts. One, in fact, has already been mentioned/shown: Julian Bream's Baroque Guitar. But Bream is actually quite easy to recommend--just get any of his guitar recordings before, say, 1972 and/or any of his early lute albums. I recently got my wife a copy of "The Essential Julian Bream," a very affordable 2-CD compilation, and would consider that a very good introduction to his recordings.

For the famous Rodrigo Aranjuez concerto, my favorite has long been the classic Decca/London recording of Yepes with Argenta. However, every major guitarist records this, so surely you'll get other recommendations, as well. IIRC, Rodrigo wrote it originally for one of the Romeros.

I would like to recommend Carlos Montoya, but it becomes rather problematic to choose a single CD--mainly because this artist recorded for so many different labels AND so many of his live concerts were put out, as well, and all of these vary in quality. I have an RCA LP called simply "Flamenco Concert" which contains his gorgeous rendition of Saeta--always a big crowd pleaser in live concerts; if you can find this, I'd say grab it. Or if you can find a compilation from his RCA years with both Saeta and Malaguena and perhaps his St. Louis Blues, that would be rather ideal.

Cheers,

Dirk

Brian

Quote from: Grazioso on February 11, 2008, 04:26:01 AM


Delightful quasi-exotic music played by a monster guitarist. Beautiful recording.
Seconded.  :)  Although Norbert Kraft seems to have become an even more talented engineer-producer these days...

Drasko

Quote from: dirkronk on February 11, 2008, 05:25:40 AM

For the famous Rodrigo Aranjuez concerto, my favorite has long been the classic Decca/London recording of Yepes with Argenta. However, every major guitarist records this, so surely you'll get other recommendations, as well. IIRC, Rodrigo wrote it originally for one of the Romeros.


No, I'm afraid not. Rodrigo wrote Concierto Andaluz for Romeros (and maybe Concierto Madrigal as well) but Aranjuez was written before half of them were born. ;D

Aranjuez was dedicated to Regino Sainz de la Maza who gave the premiere in 1940 and also made the first recording of the piece with young Ataulfo Argenta conducting in 1948 or '49.

That recording is actually available on Doremi:
http://www.amazon.com/Andres-Segovia-his-Contemporaries-Vol/dp/B0002A2VSC

or private transfer from 78's can be downloaded for free from here (very narrow bandwidth)
http://www.geocities.com/fredje222000/

I'd love to hear Yepes/Argenta but it is very hard to find on CD. There is even earlier Yepes/Argenta, mono with Madrid Chamber Orchestra but don't think that was ever on CD.

SonicMan46

This morning, I had some time @ home, and out of curiosity went through my classical music database just to see 'what' I did own (these have been collected for 20+ years, and all on CD) - plenty of varied guitar options here from solo works, transcriptions, orchestral pieces, chamber combinations, and some Latin in the mix; looking at the list, I'd like to explore more of the recordings of David Russell & Berta Rojas (both of their discs listed are excellent) - plus, there have already been some postings above that I must add to my 'wish list', such as the Iberia work on Naxos!  Looking forward to even more recommendations -  :)

Bach, JS - Guitar Transcriptions w/ Goran Sollscher on DG
Bach, JS - Lute Suites w/ Sharon Ibsin on Virgin Classics
Carulli, Ferdinando - Flute & Guitar w/ Turner-Wallace on PDI
Carulli, Ferdinando - Guitar-Piano w/ Palumbo-Saracino on Brilliant (8-CDs!)
Garoto - Guitar Works w/ Paulo Bellinati on GSP
Giuliani, Mauro - Guitar Concertos w/ Romero & Marriner on Philips Duo
Granados, Enrique - Danzas Espanolas w/ Wurzburg Guitar Trio on CPO
Ponce, Manuel - Guitar & harpsichord w/ Holzman-Martin on Naxos
Ponce, Manuel - Solo Guitar w/ Holzman on Naxos, 2-CD set
Rodrigo, Joaquin - Guitar-Harp Concs. w/ Romeros-Marriner on Philips Duo
Torroba, Moreno - Guitar Music, V.1 w/ Ana Vidovic on Naxos
Villa-Lobos, Heitor - Guitar Music w/ Fabio Zanon on MusicMakers
Vivaldi, Antonio - Guitar Concertos w/ Elliot Fisk on MusicMakers

Bream, Julian - Spanish Guitar (works Granados & Albeniz) on RCA
Fernandez, Eduardo - Guitar Concertos w/ Engl Cham Orch on London Dbl
Fernandez, Eduardo - Spanish Guitar & Spanish/Italian Guitar - 2 London CDs
Ibsin, Sharon - Dreams of World on Teldec
LA Guitar Quartet - Evening in Granada on Delos
LA Guitar Quartet - Renaissance-Nutcracker on Delos
Pakening, Christopher - already shown in a previous post
Rojas, Berta - Intimate Barrios (solo Latin guitar) on Dorian
Romero, Angel - Touch of Romance on Telarc
Russell, David - Aire Latino (solo Latin guitar) on Telarc
Segovia, Andres - All Bach Program on MCA
Segovia, Andres - My Favorite Works on MCA
Williams, John - The Guitarist on Sony

Ephemerid

Quote from: SonicMan on February 11, 2008, 09:53:10 AM
Bach, JS - Lute Suites w/ Sharon Ibsin on Virgin Classics
Just seconding this -- its lovely...

dirkronk

Quote from: Drasko on February 11, 2008, 09:29:33 AM
No, I'm afraid not. Rodrigo wrote Concierto Andaluz for Romeros (and maybe Concierto Madrigal as well) but Aranjuez was written before half of them were born.

Well, normally I'd just shrug and blame my aging memory, but in this case I went to the bookcase of references I keep at work and plucked out the 1984 edition of Penguin SRG. And there it was, under a review of the various concerti done by the Romeros and (mainly) Marriner on Philips: "Both the Concierto de Aranjuez and the Concierto madrigal were written for the Romero family, and the performances here are definitive and beautifully recorded." Which is no guarantee that they're right and you're wrong, Drasko--heaven knows one can find plenty of errors in Penguin--and since the Andaluz was included in the set being reviewed, maybe the typist or typesetter simply zoned out when transcribing. But at least I know where I derived my original understanding.
;)

Dirk

canninator

What I would consider essential purchases:

British Guitar Music (Graham Anthony Devine on Naxos)-basically because the Bream recordings are OOP
Spanish Guitar Music (Narciso Yepes, DG Collectors edition)
Bach Complete Lute Suites (John Williams or Sharon Isbin, both excellent)
Barrios Guitar Music Vol 2 (Enno Voorhorst on Naxos)
Franco Platino Guitar Recital (Naxos-he's very good)
Rodrigo Concerto Aranjuez, Fantasia para un gentilhombre (Carlos Bonnell, Dutoit-Montreal)
Shades of Sleep (James Boyd, self-published, purchase here http://www.jamesboyd.co.uk/). One of the best guitar recitals in years and features a wonderfully relaxed Nocturnal after Dowland Op.70 by Britten.

This should cover most things to get you going. Other things to consider are Pepe Romero's recordings of Spanish Guitar and any Segovia.

Ciel_Rouge

What a great thread, I was just getting into classical guitar when I found this :) I already like Julian Bream:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ft4BJPEKnSY

and Pepe Romero:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3v1CTCZjCNo

But how about the new generation of guitar players? I frequently stumbled upon video clips of genius guitarists from Korea etc. but would definitely need guidance recording-wise...

snyprrr

Whew...

Bream... the one with Britten, Martin, walton, etc...

Raphael Andia... "Tellur" by Tristan Murail is quite an interesting spectral take on guitar music. This particular cd is pretty out there (I no longer have it, can't remember)...

John Williams... I enjoy all of his Takemitsu, and his more "exotic" choices. My all time fav guitar album is that really cheap Sony disc that has all the cool Spanish pieces on it.

...is it Koskin, or Koshkin... I can't remember, but he is one of the most prolific guitar-composers out there... has some stuff on BIS???

What is that awesome guitar piece on that Ferneyhough disc???.... Kurze Schatten...

David Starobin/ Newdance... I love all those "tid bit" collections... I also remember an album called "Sheer Pluck."



I wish I would have kept all those :(.

DavidRoss

Quote from: dirkronk on February 11, 2008, 11:23:19 AM
Well, normally I'd just shrug and blame my aging memory, but in this case I went to the bookcase of references I keep at work and plucked out the 1984 edition of Penguin SRG. And there it was, under a review of the various concerti done by the Romeros and (mainly) Marriner on Philips: "Both the Concierto de Aranjuez and the Concierto madrigal were written for the Romero family, and the performances here are definitive and beautifully recorded." Which is no guarantee that they're right and you're wrong, Drasko--heaven knows one can find plenty of errors in Penguin--and since the Andaluz was included in the set being reviewed, maybe the typist or typesetter simply zoned out when transcribing. But at least I know where I derived my original understanding.
;)

Dirk

Concierto de Aranjuez was written for Regino Sainz de la Maza, who premiered it in 1940.
"Maybe the problem most of you have ... is that you're not listening to Barbirolli." ~Sarge

"The problem with socialism is that sooner or later you run out of other people's money." ~Margaret Thatcher

Grazioso



The Granados transcriptions make it worth purchasing, let alone the rest.
There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact. --Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

canninator

Quote from: DavidRoss on September 07, 2009, 04:39:57 AM
Concierto de Aranjuez was written for Regino Sainz de la Maza, who premiered it in 1940.

The man, he speaketh the truth. It is probably the reason that Segovia never performed this Concerto (in public). Anywho, this site has a (legal) historical recording of Sainz de la Maza playing CdA for download. Sound quality isn't great but his interpretation is by and large excellent.

http://www.geocities.com/fredje222000/