The current orthodoxy
is that the honour goes to Andrès
Segovia of having launched the classical
guitar as a popular instrument in modern
times. However he had a roughly contemporary
guitar master, fifteen years older and
who had started an international solo
career just after the turn of the 19th
century. His name was Miguel Llobet
(the first L pronounced something like
the German Ach-laut). He was born in
Barcelona and studied with Tarrega.
He didn’t compose very
much; there are only thirteen known
original compositions and a group of
folk-song settings. Otherwise he arranged
works by other composers for guitar.
First and foremost he was a brilliant
performing artist. On this disc we get
most of his oeuvre, spanning
his entire life. The earliest piece,
Romanza, was written when he
was still in his teens. Some of the
Preludes were composed just a
couple of years before his death in
1938.
The 13 Catalan Folksongs,
arranged not as an entity but created
during a period of more than 20 years,
are like a beautiful string of pearls.
Together they occupy about one third
of this disc. It is a pleasure to go
back and enjoy them – one at a time
or as a group. Several of these songs
can also be found among Frederic Mompou’s
Cancons i danses for piano, and
beautiful they are in both settings,
although the guitar always creates the
more intimate, the more personal feeling.
Respuesta (Impromptu)
from 1922 is a tour de force with technical
demands of the highest order. Lorenzo
Micheli, who is no newcomer - he has
among other things recorded the music
of Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, also for
Naxos (8.554831) – is well up to the
demands, but the sound is disappointing.
Compared to the ideal sound that Norbert
Kraft and Bonnie Silver produce in their
Canadian recordings, this is cramped,
restricted and hard. There is nothing
of the warmth that is typical of a Kraft
production. And we hear more of the
extra-musical noises (fingers against
strings etc) which so often is a drawback
with any guitar recording. It takes
some time to accept the sonic limitations,
and probably I wouldn’t have noticed
them so clearly if I hadn’t been playing
Kraft recordings just minutes before.
The rest of the music
is highly professionally written but
I don’t think there are any hidden masterpieces
there. On the other hand, who wants
to be served Russian caviar and champagne
for every meal when there is also fine
steak and kidney pie to be had? Llobet’s
food tastes good, a bit on the sweet
side maybe, but there are also spicier
dishes around, the serving staff do
an excellent job even if the environment,
as I have already implied, could have
been a little warmer. The four folksongs
of Argentinian origin (Llobet lived
in Buenos Aires for many years) are
nice melodic pieces, the early Romanza
is beautiful and the Variations on
a theme by Sor, which also incorporates
the medieval folia theme, is
another tour de force, a fitting dessert
to a light but tasty dinner.
In spite of some reservations
I think that this well-filled disc could
adorn many guitar collections.
Göran Forsling
see also review
by Andy Daly
Lorenzo Micheli (guitar). 
