About Presti / Lagoya Guitar Duo
Nielsen
recordings, movie etc.?
Jakob Nielsen
~~~~~~~~~~~
Bill Wiley
>Who knows something about the Presti / Lagoya Guitar Duo and their
>recordings, movie etc.?
I have one recording by them. It's on Philips #422 285-2. It is entitled
"Baroque Music for Guitars". It includes work by Bach, Scarlatti, Handel,
Pasquini, Marella and others. It's a very nice album with great playing
and arrangments. I also have a cassette by Presti/Lagoya. If I can find
it, I will forward info. I don't know of any other cd's of there work. I
inagine there are recordings on vinyl floating around somewhere or
collecting dust in a used record store somewhere.
Bill Wiley
William Jennings
this information from is no longer active it apears.
Wm David Jennings
Ida Presti
'The greatest guitarist of the 20th Century and perhaps all time'
is as yet almost completely
unknown. Recently discovered French archive film along with four
new C.D.'s reveal the
astonishing musicianship of this French-Italian woman virtuoso.
Even at the age of 13 Andres Segovia declared "I have nothing to
teach her ... she should
not accept the advice of any other guitarist".
This film tells her story from the poverty of her Paris childhood,
to feature film appearances
at the age of 12, marriage to the great French guitarist Alexandre
Lagoya, success at
Carnegie Hall and a sudden tragic mysterious death during an
American tour in 1967.
THE FILM
Begins on that tragic night of April 27th, 1967, as an aircraft
with a sick passenger makes a
dramatic landing, to be met by an ambulance in a mercy dash to New
York's Grand
Memorial hospital. Emergency surgery fails and soon a sad throng of
great musicians gather
in a Paris church to pay their last homage. The music is François
Poulenc's 'Sarabande To
Ida Presti'.
Tributes follow from British composer John Duarte, and guitarist
Julian Bream, as well as
pupils from Japan, Greece, France and The United States.
We mix through to the feature film 'La Petit Chose' and see the 12
year old Ida already
performing at concert standard.
Stills of Ida with Andres Segovia accompany his astonished admiring
quotes.
Further archive film sets up the Paris of the 1920's and 30's a
city at the centre of the
artistic world - ".... born in 1924 into the Paris of Ravel,
Stravinsky, Diagelev and Picasso
... Ida Presti teaches herself guitar .... First public concert at
the age of 8 .... the Salle
Chopin-Pleyel at the age of 10 !"
On the event of the Paganinni centenary she is invited to his
birthplace to play his guitar and
the guitar of Berlioz. We see the guitars and hear excerpts from
the recently released
C.D.'s.
We now mix to the first of the recently discovered archive and
thrill to the young Ida
playing a solo prelude composed in Paris at that time by the pupil
of Satie and Milhaud, the
Brazilian Villa Lobos.
Commentary has been provided so far by the vivacious American
concert guitarist Alice
Artzt, who has a fund of rich and colourful anecdote relating to
their relationship - first as
pupil/teacher and later as close friends. She shares with us her
many personal photos,
letters, private tape recordings, concert programmes and posters.
Ida's International reputation grows, but a rift has developed with
(a jealous ?) Segovia how
many guitar virtuosos can the concert stage support ? We hear
comment from John Duarte,
friend and composer to them both - Alice Artzt supplies further
evidence - a conspiracy
perhaps ?
Ida's husband the French virtuoso Alexandre Lagoya now tells us how
they met, their early
struggle for recognition and their subsequent international success
as a guitar duo. We now
draw on the wealth of archive again - mostly from French T.V.
recordings of the 1950's
and 60's - moodily lit, high contrast black and white film, but
with superb stereo sound from
recent C.D. sources. Gorgeous music from Albinoni, Granados,
Scarlatti and Debussy
(Permission has been obtained from the Dutch copyright holders).
Their many international pupils add their anecdotes and perform in
the Presti Lagoya style -
Ako Ito from Japan, Henri Dorigny from France, Evangelos and Liza
from Athens, Alice
Artzt from New York. All already tastefully filmed in the beautiful
setting of a 10th Century
English Priory - with candlelight and stained glass windows.
Alice Artzt finally tells her personal account of the tragic
phonecall from Grand Memorial
Hospital - ".......come quickly, bring money, Ida est mort ! ....
Alice draws all her savings
and tries to work out what is happening, .... an apparently healthy
woman of 42 has
suddenly and mysteriously died, .... can this be real .... had
something gone drastically
wrong in that emergency surgery ?"
It is 1967, the 60's musical revolution is in full swing - this is
the year of 'Good Vibrations'
and The Beatles 'Sgt Pepper' - the passing of an 'un-hip',
'square', classical musician, goes
largely un-noticed.
The only real acknowledgement of this remarkable musician - a whole
issue of the
American magazine 'Guitar Review' - completely devoted to tributes
and memories from
fellow guitarists and composers - that is until now and the
discovery of this incredible
archive film and the release of these long awaited C.D.'s.
This is the long overdue tribute to one of the great women of
twentieth century
performance, a feast of period colour and delightful music, with
the added spice of intrigue,
and a truly international cast.
Nielsen wrote:
> Who knows something about the Presti / Lagoya Guitar Duo and their
> recordings, movie etc.?
>
bo...@my-dejanews.com
jou...@texas.net wrote:
>
> Ida's International reputation grows, but a rift has developed with
> (a jealous ?) Segovia how
> many guitar virtuosos can the concert stage support ? We hear
> comment from John Duarte,
> friend and composer to them both - Alice Artzt supplies further
> evidence - a conspiracy
> perhaps ?
A very serious charge, if true. What kind of evidence
do Duarte and Artzt give to support it?
Bodot
-----------== Posted via Deja News, The Discussion Network ==----------
http://www.dejanews.com/ Search, Read, Discuss, or Start Your Own
William Jennings
Wm D. Jennings
bo...@my-dejanews.com wrote:
> In article <3649E6FA...@texas.net>,
> jou...@texas.net wrote:
> >
> > Ida's International reputation grows, but a rift has developed with
> > (a jealous ?) Segovia how
> > many guitar virtuosos can the concert stage support ? We hear
> > comment from John Duarte,
> > friend and composer to them both - Alice Artzt supplies further
> > evidence - a conspiracy
> > perhaps ?
>
William Jennings
up and secure a copy if I can. You might contact Alice Artzt via dejanews
search. Her e-mail address is something like <artzt...@aol.com>. I will be
out of the country until Jan. 99.
wdj
William Jennings wrote:
> Check out: http://www.moearth.co.uk/
>
> Wm D. Jennings
>
> bo...@my-dejanews.com wrote:
>
> > In article <3649E6FA...@texas.net>,
> > jou...@texas.net wrote:
> > >
> > > Ida's International reputation grows, but a rift has developed with
> > > (a jealous ?) Segovia how
> > > many guitar virtuosos can the concert stage support ? We hear
> > > comment from John Duarte,
> > > friend and composer to them both - Alice Artzt supplies further
> > > evidence - a conspiracy
> > > perhaps ?
> >
Eric Meijer
: >Who knows something about the Presti / Lagoya Guitar Duo and their
: >recordings, movie etc.?
: I have one recording by them. It's on Philips #422 285-2. It is entitled
: "Baroque Music for Guitars". It includes work by Bach, Scarlatti, Handel,
: Pasquini, Marella and others. It's a very nice album with great playing
: and arrangments. I also have a cassette by Presti/Lagoya. If I can find
: it, I will forward info. I don't know of any other cd's of there work. I
: inagine there are recordings on vinyl floating around somewhere or
: collecting dust in a used record store somewhere.
There actually is a double (or triple?) CD album from Presti Lagoya
with all the recorded works for the Philips lable. Great stuff. It
contains the baroque pieces you mention, a lot of Spanish work,
Tarantella by Petit, and I think also pieces by Castelnuovo Tedesco. I
will have a look at home to check the specifics.
Eric
--
E.L. Meijer
Eindhoven Univ. of Technology
Lab. for Catalysis and Inorg. Chem.
William Jennings
collection.
wdj
Fred Smith
on Nonesuch. I purchased the Mercury recordings used some 30 years ago; the
Nonesuch perhaps 25 years ago. I can dig out the details if necessary. The
arrangements and performances are stunning; the recording quality is
variable. I may have another recording of concertos, but memories are dim.
Nielsen wrote in message <72afgu$pqu$1...@news.cybercity.dk>...
>Who knows something about the Presti / Lagoya Guitar Duo and their
>recordings, movie etc.?
>
>
>
No1z fool
Eric Meijer
[...]
: There actually is a double (or triple?) CD album from Presti Lagoya
: with all the recorded works for the Philips lable. Great stuff. It
: contains the baroque pieces you mention, a lot of Spanish work,
: Tarantella by Petit, and I think also pieces by Castelnuovo Tedesco. I
: will have a look at home to check the specifics.
OK, I looked it up. It is a triple CD album that goes by the number
446 213-2. If you are going to get any of the available Philips CD's,
you might as well take this set, since it has all the material. It is
part of the `The Early Years' series.
Majjick
The good new is that in both cases, the complete recordings have been reissued
on CD:
Ida Presti- Alexandre Lagoya (RCA 74321258662), 2 CD set
Duo Extraordinaire (Philips 446 213-2), 3 CD set.
The bad news is that you may need to go (or at least write) to France to get
them.
Concerning P/L's relationship with Segovia, M. Lagoya talked quite a lot about
it in an interview I did which was published in the February 1982 edition of
"Guitar" (which subsequently became "Guitar International"). If enough people
are interested, I could offer it for republication to "Classical Guitar", for
whom I currently write.
From his comments, their relationship with Segovia seems to have been cordial.
The little snide putdowns in his praise of any guitarist not his pupil, for
which the latter was famous (and which even appeared in his expressions of
sorrow at Presti's death), seem to have been kept in a separate compartment in
his head, as far as I can make out.
I was fortunate enough to see Presti/Lagoya at the Wigmore hall in January
1967, when they played Jack Duarte's "Variations on a French Nursery Song".
I'd never seen anything like it, and I don't supppose I ever will.
Three months later, she was dead :-(
I, too, woud be extremely grateful for any details of the film.
Paul Magnussen
William Jennings
wdj
SteveDick
recording of a solo guitarist, he wouldn't say who, playing Granados. The
interpretation showed great depth and maturity as well as youthful daring.
Really, some of the best guitar playing I've ever heard. The player was, of
course, 16 year old Ida Presti. The recording is still, I think, unreleased.
mwestling
Mark
Majjick wrote in message <19981115094249...@ng12.aol.com>...
Majjick
<mwes...@home.com> wrote:
> Was her cause of death ever discovered?
The story given out at the time (as I recall from John Duarte's obituary in
B.M.G. magazine) was that it was from a sudden haemorrage due to undetected
lung cancer.
Years later I heard a contradictory account, but as I never saw any
substantiation I won't repeat it here.
Paul Magnussen
mwestling
Thanks for the info. I've never heard anything about her death (nothing
seems mentioned on any sites on the Internet). Why does her death seem so
mysterious?
Mark
Majjick wrote in message <19981116101523...@ng143.aol.com>...
Allan Jones
> >
> >The good new is that in both cases, the complete recordings have been
> reissued
> >on CD:
> >
> >Ida Presti- Alexandre Lagoya (RCA 74321258662), 2 CD set
> >Duo Extraordinaire (Philips 446 213-2), 3 CD set.
mentioned above (RCA 74321258662), and there's a single-CD compilation
(RCA 74321258672). This latter CD contains one item that is not in the
two-CD set, namely Vivaldi's concerto in G. Everything else on the single
CD is on the double-CD set.
Allan Jones
For real e-mail address, remove z from address given.
Jim String
>In article <rWD32.4003$tQ2.5...@news.rdc2.occa.home.com "mwestling"
><mwes...@home.com> wrote:
>
>> Was her cause of death ever discovered?
>
>The story given out at the time (as I recall from John Duarte's obituary in
>B.M.G. magazine) was that it was from a sudden haemorrage due to undetected
>lung cancer.
>
>Years later I heard a contradictory account, but as I never saw any
>substantiation I won't repeat it here.
Fair enough, though hardly in Usenet style. *cackle*
Where did this contradictory account come from? I suppose that unless it
was strictly hearsay it probably wouldn't hurt to post a hint about a
possible source. If there is no way to follow up then I suppose it would
be useless, though you never know who might come out of the woodwork
years later with potential corraborations.
Best,
Jim