Andrés Segovia was a classical guitar pioneer who popularized the instrument in the early 20th century, when it wasn’t accepted as a legitimate classical instrument. Ignoring the guitar’s limitations, Segovia magnified its strengths and in the process delighted large audiences for nearly eight decades. He thought of the guitar not as an inferior instrument but as a miniature orchestra.
By employing touch - using fingernails for a brighter tones, fingertips for mellower timbres - and using techniques such as large and small vibrato, palm muting and right-hand placement over the sound hole and next to the bridge, he produced extreme tonal variations. With just his two hands, he coaxed the tones of a violin, cello, French horn, piano, tuba, cornet, harp and more from a six-string guitar.
I have more than 20 Segovia albums and happily snatch up the LPs from his prolific Decca period, all of which are nice pressings featuring great music and striking cover art. That said, I prefer his purely solo ventures. They are perfect for my sensibility, and his music goes straight to my heart.
Released by Decca in 1956, Masters of the Guitar is a great place to begin investigating this virtuoso. I love Masters of the Guitar in part because it exclusively features the music of Fernando Sor (1778 - 1839) and Francisco Tárrega (1852 - 1909). These brilliant Spanish composers had incredible life stories and contributed significantly to the evolution of guitar.
Tárrega, in particular, wrote with a passion I find easy to relate to, and Sor created hundreds of beautiful guitar compositions that I love. Both artists are invaluable sources of great guitar music Side one is devoted to Sor and starts with the lovely and ambitious Introduction and Allegro, followed by Two Minuets: In A Major