BBC Recital 1970: Sergio and Eduardo Abreu

The biography of the Abreu brothers has been told many times but it is important to remember their international career was exceedingly short, a span of seven years between 1968 and 1975, the year Eduardo gave up playing in public. Sérgio continued as a soloist, but starting in 1978 he took interest in guitar building; he became a full-time luthier after an intended one-year sabbatical in 1981 he never returned from. In that short period they played in the most important chamber series in Europe, USA and Australia, and managed to record three LPs for CBS and Decca; Sergio would still make a solo recording in the late 1970’s. This album was recorded in London in October 1970 for the BBC. They played the same program on the 18th at the Queen Elizabeth Hall; they would return to the same venue on the 28th to perform Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s Concerto with the English Chamber Orchestra. On the 26th and 27th they recorded both Castelnuovo and Santorsola’s concertos with the same orchestra at the Abbey Road studios. The BBC recording must have been made around those dates. Sergio believes much of the magic of their robust, expressive and crystal-clear tone quality, Apollonean if compared to the Dionysian Segovia and Julian Bream, is due to their symbiosis with the exceptional instruments which, at the time, belonged to their teacher. Sergio played on a 1930 Hauser I that had been bought from Segovia in 1935; Eduardo played on a 1920 Santos Hernandez that was purchased from the maker’s widow in 1955. These were their exclusive instruments until 1973, when the fear of damage in tour led to the decision of adopting a pair of David Rubios. -Fabio Zanon