To facilitate survival of their craft, the great masters of western art
music composed works in the form of studies for their respective
instruments. The challenge in this endeavour is the balance between didactic
content and musical beauty. J.S. Bach, Domenico Scarlatti and Frederic
Chopin, to name but three, exhibited great skill in writing studies which
reflect this balance. Exemplified by the Sonatas of Scarlatti, music not so
designated was often written with strong didactic objectives.
Among those who wrote for the guitar, none excelled Fernando Sor in
writing studies that combined exquisite musical beauty, particularly
harmonically, along with technical development leading to a mastery of the
instrument. Sor wrote large volumes of music for students of the guitar, but
essentially his core studies comprise six discrete groups totalling 121
studies. It is clear that the studies of Sor were as much about developing
musicianship as technical prowess.
The most famous of the Sor studies are to be found in an edition by Andrés
Segovia, published circa 1945. Like the composer, Segovia demonstrated
refined musical taste and profound understanding of guitar technique in the
twenty he chose for this edition. Some are of such breathtaking beauty that
they became staples of the modern concert repertory, and Segovia not only
recorded many, but also played them regularly in his concerts.
Great music has a component of immortality and invariably attracts the
attention of subsequent generations of composers. The studies of Fernando
Sor are no exception, and have been adapted in various forms and guises:
Antón García Abril orchestrated several with guitar accompaniment (
review); Roland Dyens
incorporated them into string quartets (
review), and numerous others have composed second parts for duet
performance. Even Fernando Sor could not resist the temptation to add his
own thoughts to those of Mozart in the famous Opus 9,
Introduction and
Variations on a Theme by Mozart. Those familiar with guitar repertory
will know that
The Magic Flute was Sor’s source of inspiration.
The review disc is interesting and unique in that it presents thirty seven
original studies by Sor and groups them into suites, essentially without
change or adaptation. There are eight suites each comprising three to seven
studies, each suite representing a specific major or minor key.
Nicoletta Confalone, who wrote the liner-notes section dealing with
Fernando Sor and his guitar studies, presents concepts to suggest that these
studies share more in common than tonality. In the way grouped they exhibit
continuity within the same tonality and fall comfortably within the suite
format. In the recording this concept is further reinforced by allowing some
studies to flow directly on, the final cadence resolving on the first chord
of the next.
For whatever reasons, the studies chosen exclude the most technically
challenging that Sor wrote. Although the keys are represented, conspicuous
omissions include numbers 12, 14, 16, 17 and 20 from the Segovia
Edition.
One aspect of this CD which significantly limits its appeal is the use of
a period instrument by Fratelli Rovetta, Bergamo, 1817. These instruments
invariably have a rather ’boxy’ sound and limited volume potential. As part
of the ‘authentic’ approach they are usually played without fingernails - as
Sor would have done - and these factors result in a sound which is devoid of
tonal colourations/variations and is rather monotone. On this recording
every track sounds much the same, and after 37 tracks only the dedicated
aficionado will still be attentive.
That said there are examples of original repertory played on period
guitars that sound excellent. Ricardo Gallén- Naxos 8.555285 (
review) manages this on a copy of an original guitar by
Joaquín Garcia. Malaga. Although not specified, the tonal palette strongly
suggests employment of fingernails, rather than just the tip of finger
flesh.
Interestingly the original instrument used in this recording has a scale
(string) length of 650mm. Until the time of Antonio Torres (1817-1892) when
the scale length became fairly standardised at 650mm, the majority of period
guitars had scale lengths of 640mm and less, some as low as 629mm. However
no real standard has ever been adopted with guitars made in the
middle/latter part of the 20
th century by favoured makers, such
as Jose Ramirez III, having scales length of up to 670mm. The current
fashions centres more on 650mm with 640 being favoured by some with small
hands.
One can understand preoccupation with how the music originally sounded
when played by the composer. Unfortunately, and unlike its orchestral
stringed relatives, the guitar of 1817 is an anachronism when compared with
a modern-day concert guitar. To persist in this preoccupation, and
exacerbate the disadvantages by not using fingernails for reasons of
‘authenticity’, produces results that amount to little more than historical
curiosity.
The merit of this CD lies in creative programming and not in the
performances. This is strictly for students of the guitar with a ‘period’
penchant.
Zane Turner