Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. Andante
2. Andantino
3. Lento
4. Romance De Los Pinos
5. Madronos
6. Serenata Burlesca
7. Variations On A Theme From Mozart's 'The Magic Flute'
8. Mesto E Calmo
9. Theme, Variations & Finale
10. Cancion Mexicana No.X
11. Sevillana, Op.29
12. Sarabanda
13. Capriccio Diabolico, Op.85
14. Tonadilla For Guitar On The Name Of Andres Segovia
15. No.1 In E Minor
16. No.3 In A Minor
17. Guitarreo
18. Segovia, Op.29

Disc 2:

1. If My Complaints
2. Now, O Now I Need Must Part
3. Sarabande
4. 1. Prelude (Transposed In D Major)
5. 4. Tempo Di Bourree
6. Courante
7. 3. Gavotte En Rondeau
8. Aria E Corrente
9. Moderato
10. Menuet In G Major
11. Andantino Variato
12. No.7 In A Major
13. 2. Canzonetta
14. 2. Quasi Lento (Preludio)
15. 1. Andantino Poco Allegretto (Allegretto)
16. 2. Il Vecchio Castello
17. Allegretto
18. Tres Calme Et Doucement Expressif
19. No.4 In E Flat Minor
20. 5. Asturias. Leyenda - Preludio
21. 7. Zambra Granadina
22. Estudio Sin Luz
23. Allegro Con Brio

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2327 in Music
• Released on: 2002-10-08
• Number of discs: 2
• Format: Original recording remastered

Amazon.com
DG has put together a fascinating compilation of Segovia's art that reminds us what a protean figure he was. Segovia single-handedly put the instrument on the map by making classical guitar concerts popular events, broadening the instrument's repertory through commissions and transcriptions, and convincing even doubters that it could be a vehicle for serious music. He's heard here in brief pieces recorded between 1952 and 1969. Even in those made when he was well into his 70s, his fingers remain nimble and interpretations lively. Listening straight through, one hears many all-time Segovia favorites as Turina's Sevillana and Albeniz's Asturias and Zambra Granadina and renews appreciation for path-breaking composers like Castelnuovo-Tedesco. He wrote extensively for Segovia and his Capriccio diabolico and Tonadilla are pieces of real substance. Disc two is largely made up transcriptions and it's amazing how well so many of them work on the guitar, at least under Segovia's magic fingers. Thus the transformations of Bach's violin music and even a Chopin Prelude sound idiomatic, and the gorgeous melodies of the Canzonetta from Mendelssohn's Op. 12 String Quartet are irresistible here. An entrancing set. --Dan Davis

Customer Reviews

A Man and His Art - Magnificently Captured
This 2-CD set produced by Deutche Grammmophon and first released in 2002 is one set of the hundreds that could have been or the dozens that actually have been made and sold successfully all over the world. The exceptional feature of this particular collection is not, of course, the performer. Quite to the contrary, the miraculous consistency of stylings and performance are amongst the most remarkable aspects of the man who was, arguably, the 20th Centry's virtuoso supreme of the classical guitar, Andres Segovia (1893-1987.) Rather, it is the collection itself - the pieces chosen to be produced on this one set - this, to steal a German word, gestalt. While his style did not remain constant throughout his long life and career, by the time he had developed his most masterful skills that included doing his own arrangements - the era represented on this particular set (1951-1960) - his playing had become completely his own - unchallenged and unmatched by even other clearly great guitarists with whom he shared this era.

There are a total of 31 pieces played on these CDs and while a playlist would be an unnecessary use of space here, a list of the composers represented is not. More than the specific pieces Segovia gives us here, the range of composers chosen by the compilers and editors - with each piece rearranged by Segovia himself, tells us a great deal about his interests, talents and musical range. These composers include:
Isaac Albeniz, Johann Sebastian Bach, Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Frederic Chopin, Claude Debussy, John Dowland, Manuel de Falla, Cesar Franke, Girolamo Frescobaldi, Edvard Grieg, George Frederic Handel, Felix Mendelsohn, Frederico Moreno Torroba, Modest Mussorgsky, Nicolo Paganini, Felipe Pedrell, Manuel Ponce, Jean-Philippe Rameau, Joaquin Rodrigo, Albert Roussel, Domenico Scarlatti, Alexander Scriabin, Segovia's own composition of Estudio sin luz, Fernando Sor, Francisco Tarrega, Joaquin Turina and Heitor Villa-Lobos. A truly magnificent and broad ranging collection held together by Segovia's unique personal style, approach and sound.

Largely self-taught, Andres Segovia did things with a guitar that others only imagined. He didn't just play Bach, for example - music written for an entirely different type of instrument (keyboards.) He went a step further, and recorder Bach's keyboard lessons written for his students (the Two and Three Part Inventions) and made them sound as if they had been written for the guitar! His artistry is evident to even the casual listener and in this collection, any devote of classical guitar and/or of Segovia as an individual artist, will not be disappointed.
Perfect listening for anytime. Hypnotic and, simply, unsurpassed. A necessary addition to any serious classical guitar collection.

Beautiful. Just Beautiful.
I don't know how to explain the joy I feel while listening to this album. I put on Segovia and I am taken away somewhere distant. I can hear his emotion through every note and I tend to remember fond memories of my childhood.
The recordings are amazing, yet left a little raw. You get the feeling like you snuck into a practice session and you get to hear him play as though he was playing just for himself. There is no audience. Just him and his guitar.
Segovia has touched my heart as well as my thoughts and I will treasure this album for ages to come.

Great Sound Quality; Great Value
The 24-bit remastering of these analog recordings from the 1950s and 60s is outstanding. Both disks are chock-full at almost 80 minutes each, and there are a good many songs you don't hear every day. Forty of the 41 tracks are solos, while a short Rodrigo orchestral movement concludes the set. Good liner notes are included. There is only a slight overlap between this 2-CD set and Deutsche Grammophon's 4-CD box set, "The Segovia Collection." I own over 40 classical guitar CDs, and this is easily among my favorites.