It’s hardly surprising
that there are a number of competing Segovia discs in
the marketplace. Some range across time and place, some
concentrate on the American Deccas (in the main) such
as the extensive ongoing Naxos series and some, such
as Doremi, couple Segovia with less well-known contemporaries
of his. I’ve reviewed a number on this site. This EMI ‘Icon’ three
disc box sets itself the task of collating London recordings
made between 1927 and 1948. They don’t run chronologically
though they are in rough chronological blocks as it were – by
which I mean that the 1927 and ’28 sessions are bisected
by one from 1935. Since these are all the semi-legendary
Bach sessions that doesn’t really matter so much, at
least in my book. Some people, I appreciate, would prefer
a straight chronological run. Most would not care overmuch
about the lack of matrix or issue numbers - but I do.
The
retexturing, chordal playing, lavish portamenti and even
more lavish rubati of his Bach are bewitching examples
of the refashioning of material for a different medium.
As Emma Baker notes in her booklet essay these devices
don’t find favour nowadays – and so much the worse for
these supposedly pluralist times. Franchising Bach to
specialist practitioners is no good for anyone. The romanticised
identification between Segovia and Bach is a profound
and real one; matters of supposedly stylistic accuracy
are surely secondary to the historical fact of his annexation
of this body of work for his own instrument.
The
Gavotte from the Partita No.3 is full of these teasing
rubati and gracioso phrasing and almost emblematic of
Segovia’s way with the composer. The Small Queen’s Hall
sessions also produced successful takes of Ponce’s Suite
in A minor, a graceful neo-Bachian exercise with an especially
tremulously warm Gavotte. Sor’s Thème Varié Op.9
has long since become a staple of the guitarist’s repertoire but
here is Segovia in May 1927, at his first session, revealing
its virtuosity and charm for the first time. De Visée’s
Minuet was new to me and a delight, the Mendelssohn an
example of dextrous fingering in the extreme and the
Malats truly elegant evidence of Segovia’s gift for legato
phrasing. Tárrega’s Recuerdos De La Alhambra is
not as slow as it was later to become.
Few
players on any instrument, certainly few orchestras,
could be as evocative or could cast so deep a spell in
Albéniz as could Segovia. Try the two movements recorded
from the Suite española in the guitarist’s own arrangement – as
are, of course, so many of the pieces in this collection.
In Granados’s Danzas españolas No.5 he gives Fritz Kreisler
a run for his money rubato-wise but better still is the Canción from
Ponce’s Third Sonata – an exquisite piece of colour shading.
The same composer’s extensive Folies d'Espange lasts
a good quarter of an hour and is in essence a series
of variations on La Folia, of which the slow variation
before the concluding Fugue is a highpoint.
The
last disc is given over to the post-war recordings made
in London in 1949, a decade after he last recorded there.
More Bach inevitably followed as well as the expected
Spanish composers. The Arada from Torroba’s Suite
castellana is a languid romance and Crespo’s Norteña wears
the potency of popular song with avid beauty, There’s
even an original from Segovia himself – Estudio sin
luz. Of the remainder Villa-Lobos’s First Etude goes
like a bomb whilst the Tarantella of Castelnuovo-Tedesco
is saturated in elegant rhythmic drive and élan. His
neo-classical concerto is a delight as well – Boccherini
coated with honey. Its evocative slow movement is the
high point and Alec Sherman directs the winds with a
succulent baton.
Many,
if not most of these recordings have been newly engineered;
some have relied on earlier transfers but the majority
were engineered in 2008. Comparison with Keith Hardwick’s
old RLS745 double LP of the 1927-29 sides shows that
it exudes more surface noise, as expected, but also more
room ambience, especially in the Small Queen’s Hall sessions.
Similarly where comparison exists Naxos – for example
the later 1949 sides are to be found on 8.111088 - are
more open than EMI’s recent work. This is characteristic
of EMI’s recent approach in any case, which is of the
treble damping kind.
On
whatever basis you choose – and in addition to these
factors Segovia re-recorded much of his repertory - surely
everyone needs a representative Segovia selection. This
one is inexpensive, well produced and fully representative.
Jonathan Woolf
Track listing
CD1
Johann Sebastian
BACH (1685-1750)
Gavotte en rondeau (from Partita No.3 in E, BWV1006) (arr. Segovia) [2:53]
Courante (from Cello Suite No.3 in C major, BWV 1009)
(arr. Segovia) [2:52]
Prelude (from Cello Suite No.1 in G, BWV 1007) (arr.
Ponce) [2:08]
Prelude in C minor BWV999 (arr. Segovia) [1:26]
Suite in E minor Allemande BWV996 (arr. Segovia) [1:58]
Fugue (Allegro) (from Sonata No.1 in G minor, BWV 1001)
(arr. Segovia) [4:34]
Manuel PONCE (1882-1948)
Suite in A minor
I. Prelude – Allemande [4:27]
II. Gavotte [2:56]
III. Sarabande [2:55]
IV. Gigue [4:38]
Fernando SOR (1788-1839)
Thème Varié - Introduction and Variations on a theme by Mozart Op. 9
[3:37]
Robert de VISÉE (c.1660-1725)
Sarabande [1:47]
Bourée [0:52]
Menuet [1:43]
Johann Jacob FROBERGER (1616-1667)
Gigue [1:38]
Federico Moreno TORROBA (1891-1982)
Allegretto (Sonatina in A) [3:29]
Felix MENDELSSOHN (1809-1847)
Canzonetta (from String Quartet No.1 in E flat, Op.12) (arr. Segovia) [4:18]
Joaquin MALATS (1872-1912)
Serenata española [3:45]
Francisco TÁRREGA (1852-1909)
Recuerdos De La Alhambra [3:30]
Study in A minor (from Twenty Studies) [2:02]
Mario CASTELNUOVO-TEDESCO (1895-1968)
Vivo ed energico from Sonata 'Omaggio a Boccherini' Op. 77 [3:50]
CD2
Isaac Albéniz (1860-1909)
Suite espanola No.1 Op.47 (arr. Segovia)
I. Granada [4:21]
III. Sevilla [4:17]
Federico Moreno TORROBA (1891-1982)
Suite castellana –Fandanguillo [2:03]
Prelude in E [1:59]
Nocturno [3:09]
Joaquin TURINA (1882-1949)
Fandanguillo Op. 36 [4:00]
Enrique GRANADOS (1867-1916)
Danzas espanolas Op. 37
Melancolica (Danza Triste) No.10 [4:12]
Andaluza (Playera) No.5 [4:30]
Manuel PONCE (1882-1948)
Sonata No. 3 [7:17]
Postlude [1:55]
Mazurka [3:18]
Petite Valse (arr. Segovia) [2:41]
Folies d'Espange [14:43]
CD 3
Johann Sebastian BACH (1685-1750)
Partita No. 1 for unaccompanied violin in B minor BWV 1002 (arr. Segovia)
Bourree [3:18]
Double [2:46]
Fernando SOR (1788-1839)
Andantino (from Six Divertimentos, Op.2) [2:58]
Federico Moreno TORROBA (1891-1982)
Suite Castellana
I. Fandanguillo [1:51]
II. Arada [2:55]
Joaquin TURINA (1882-1949)
Fandanguillo Op. 36 (1926) [3:53]
Jorge Gomez CRESPO (1900-1971)
Nortena [3:07]
Heitor VILLA-LOBOS (1887-1959)
12 Etudes (1929)
No.1 in E minor [1:56]
No.7 in C sharp minor [2:40]
Manuel Maria
PONCE (1886-1948)
Sonata Clasica
IV. Allegro (Rondo) [3:09]
Sonatina Meridional [8:32]
Andrés SEGOVIA (1893-1987)
Estudio Sin Luz [1:52]
Mario CASTELNUOVO-TEDESCO (1895-1968)
Tarantella, Aranci in Fiore, Op.87 (1936) [3:48]
Guitar Concerto No.1 in D, Op. 99 (1939) [18.59]¹
Andrés Segovia (guitar) 
