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Andres Segovia, playing Montemayor from “Castillos de España” by Moreno Torroba.

Here is the legendary Segovia sound, the likes of which we will never hear again. There was a magic in his phrasing, a distinction which set Segovia’s sound apart from any other. Sometimes critisised for his liberal use of Rubato, or excessive glissando, Segovia’s interpretations were always absolutely unique.

In recent years, John Williams has been critical of Segovia, calling him a “bad teacher”, and failing to recognise latent qualities in his students playing, prefering instead to attempt to teach them to play every phrase the way he himself would play it. There’s little doubt there was bad blood between John’s Father Len and Segovia, who both differed politicly, as well as the musical direction of the upcoming John. To what extent this influences John William comments is something he himself only knows. Williams claims his critisims of Segovia is motivated by “honesty forces me to re-evaluate” Segovia’s legacy to the guitar.

It’s a trait of many guitarists that, for some reason, instead of accepting and enjoying, the tendency is to seek out and destroy. Segovia himself was “guilty” of this sort of thing, in his pursuit of guitaristic direction made him very singular minded, to the point where no other direction was feasible in his mind. By that, I mean the taking the guitar away from Flamenco and Folklodic influences, and remain strictly classical music. Virtuoso guitarist composers, Agustin Barrios in particular, caught the brunt of the Segovia predjudice, to the point where Segovia banned his class from playing Barrios music in his class.

Whatever predjudices these guitarists may have harboured, there is a place in my heart for all of them. This Segovia video has that magic element in the sound, which will remain forever.

Tags: Segovia, Classical Guitar, Moreno Torroba, John Williams, Agustin Barrios

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