Scott Tennant - The Segovia Sessions

Name: Scott Tennant - The Segovia Sessions
SKU: CDGCOOP-01872
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The 1969 José Ramirez guitar heard on this recording was built by "AM" (Antonio Martinez), who was a favorite luthier in the Ramirez workshop among top players at this time (their initials are stamped onto the internal heel block inside the guitar). Its first owner was the great Andrés Segovia, who acquired it new in 1969, and who, according to José Ramirez III, "habitually" played this instrument in his concerts from 1969 to 1980, at which point it went back to the Ramirez shop to have the neck refinished. The instrument later had three other owners between 1980 and 1994 before it was purchased by Russell Cleveland of Dallas, TX for his collection of historic guitars – which would become the basis of the famous coffee-table book "The Classical Guitar – A Complete History" (this guitar appears on pages 55-57). While in the Cleveland collection, it received a good deal of attention and was shown to all the top concert artists who passed through Dallas on their tours – in fact, the great Segovia protégé Christopher Parkening played on this guitar when performing in Dallas. It remained in the Cleveland collection until November 2015, when GSI acquired it with the purchase of the entire collection of 63 guitars. This guitar, along with the other 62 in the collection, had only been in the GSI showroom for a matter of days when Scott dropped by to see some of the goodies in the collection, and this one "struck him to the core" (his words). Although the guitar sold very quickly, the new owner was kind enough to let us keep the guitar in our possession until we finished up this once-in-a-lifetime project with Scott. The time we’ve all spent with this guitar has been a real pleasure and privilege and I find it quite fitting that we should finally send it off to its new home with the capstone that is this recording, beautifully played by Scott Tennant, who deeply understands both the music and the guitar, and their connection to one another. Special thanks also to Augustine strings who co-sponsored this project and supplied the strings for the recording. I think the Maestro would be proud.

David Collett - President, Guitar Salon International

TRACK LISTING:

ANDRÉS SEGOVIA (1893 - 1987)

01 - Macarena 0’53

PRELUDIOS

02 - Preludio No. 1 0’42

03 - Preludio No. 3 1’04

04 - Preludio No. 4 0’33

05 - Preludio No. 8 1’30

06 - Preludio No. 9 0’41

07 - Preludio No. 10 0’52

08 - Preludio No. 11 1’07

TRES PIEZAS BREVES

09 - I. Canción 1’09

10 - II. Romacillo 2’27

11 - III. Postlude 1’47

12 - Impromptu 1’33

ESTUDIOS

13 - I. Oración 2’26

14 - II. Remembranza 3’06

15 - Estudio Sin Luz 3’06

16 - Prelude in Chords 1’00

17 - Recordando a Deli 2’57

18 - Estudio para Deli 1’30

FOUR EASY LESSONS

19 - Easy Lessons I 0’40

20 - Easy Lessons II 0’33

21 - Easy Lessons III 0’38

22 - Easy Lessons IV 0’22

23 - For Carl Sandburg 0’31

LESSON

24 - Lesson No. 11 1’10

25 - Lesson No. 12 1’04

CANCIONES POPULARES DE DISTINTOS PAÍSES

26 - Croata (Croatia) 0’32

27 - Bretona (Breton) 1’05

28 - Catalana (Cataluña) 1’18

29 - Francesa (France) 1’27

30 - Inglesa (England) 1’29

31 - Irlandesa (Ireland) 0’52

32 - Polaca (Poland) 1’16

33 - Serbia (No. 11) 0’34

34 - Serbia (No. 12) 1’22

35 - Rusa (Russia) 1’26

36 - Fandango de la Madrugada 5’28

TOTAL TIME 50’10

The front of "The Segovia Sessions" - a classical guitar album by Scott Tennant

The back of "The Segovia Sessions" - a classical guitar album by Scott Tennant

The Segovia Sessions - Interview Scott Tennant Part I

The Segovia Sessions - Interview Scott Tennant Part II

The Segovia Sessions - Interview Scott Tennant Part III

Background

THE SEGOVIA SESSIONS To understand the music composed by Andrés Segovia, one must be well aware of his life history. He was the greatest guitarist of the twentieth century, and his figure dominates the history of the guitar of the last century with the glorified grandeur of a monarch. He was the concert performer most admired by the public, praised by critics and contentiously sought after by promoters. He was also the great impetus for the creation of a new repertoire of original music for the guitar that European and Latin American composers readily and enthusiastically wrote for him. His existence, however, was affected by his enormous commitment to the exorbitant number of concerts that he held in all the countries of the world. Few other virtuosos could sustain the burden of the schedule he did since 1909, (the year of his first recital in Granada) until 1987, (the year in which he gave his last concert in Miami at the age of 94). He took it upon himself to dutifully endure the fatigue and discomfort of his continuous travels, forced to spend most of his time in hotels rather than at home. A holiday was considered a luxury that he was able to concede to only in rare circumstances. This nomadic and precarious lifestyle gave rise to a curious contradiction. On the one hand, he continued to solicit composers for new guitar works, promising performances and recordings. On the other hand, lacking the time to properly dedicate himself to the music that arrived, he was forced to apologize to the composers, complaining about the impossibility of studying and performing what he liked. Thus, we have two Segovian repertoires: what he could assimilate, play and record, making it known and famous; and what he was forced to keep in the shadows, works that have been discovered and published only since the beginning of the new millennium. How he was able to find within such constraints the small windows of time that allowed him to quickly write his own few brief compositions is a question that can be answered only with consideration of his inexhaustible creative yearning. It didn’t matter how abundant the body of works prepared for him by the composers was, something in him demanded a more direct and highly personal expression. Here are the Estudios, the Preludios, the Anecdotes, the Canciónes Populares. Here is also that strange work, recently rediscovered, entitled Fandango de la Madrugada, written while forty years old and exiled in Montevideo during the world war. With this piece he evokes his remote Andalusia, vibrant with memories of that flamenco which seduced him as a boy before his discovery of the great music and vocation that would make him the king of the guitar. -Angelo Gilardino (English translation: Joe LoPiccolo)