Classical Guitar Virtuoso Profile: John Williams
John Williams surely ranks as one of the world's most admired and respected guitarists. With a career spanning 5 decades, numerous recordings, public performances, & masterclasses John Williams has surely left an indelible influence on guitarists of today.
Introduction
John Williams' name is synonymous with flawless technique, careful and controlled interpretation, and his tireless transcriptions of composers' works that were often overlooked by his most famous tutor - Andres Segovia. In addition to this he is also well-known for his dislike of the standard teaching method encouraging solo classical guitarists to aim for virtuosity and an expansive repertoire rather than overall musicianship, playing in ensembles, and improving tone quality.
Why I Like John Williams
Interestingly enough I can't recall when or where I was when I first heard John Williams play but I do seem to think it was when I bought his documentary 'The Seville Concert'. I remember being so excited after I purchased it. I couldn't wait to get the tape home and put it into my VHS (this was before DVDs and the internet). I put it in and I was absolutely memorised. One of my most poignant memories was wondering why he used his pinky and annular fingers together when doing rest strokes.
I basically wore that video out and now I can play virtually everything that is on that recording! Along with countless others I think what drew me to John Williams was his absolute technical mastery of the guitar. To me it seemed like there was nothing that he couldn't do. Flawless tremolo, perfect phrasing, no string scrapes, speed to burn and next-level stamina. That video influenced me enough that I learned Vals Op. 8, No. 3 by Augustin Barrios and used it on my first television appearance! The Prélude from the Suite in E major BWV 1006a also formed part of my LTCL examination with the Trinity College of London.
During that period I also bought the 'Together' & 'Together again' CDs that featured John Williams and my other favourite classical guitarist Julian Bream playing as a duo!
Another reason why I liked John Williams is that he seemed perfectly comfortable pointing out why he didn't like Andres Segovia's teaching pedagogy. After watching as many Segovia teaching classes on YouTube as I could and reading blogs and articles written about that particular subject it does seem that JW had a very strong case!
Conclusion
This is just a brief look at John Williams. I'll be writing more about his in subsequent articles. Until then...
Let your fingers fly!
Andres Segovia - Segovia at Los Olivos Documentary
Enter Andres Segovia - monster player + total badass.
Introduction
Today's post is about the most famous of all classical guitarists - Andres Segovia. I've been watching a few videos that are floating around on YouTube and despite his popularity and influence on almost all classical guitarists I discovered that I hadn't seen his documentary 'Segovia at Los Olivos'.
If you have a spare 50 minutes or so I strongly suggest that you sit yourself down and take the time to watch it. For a start you get to see the absolutely massive house that Segovia commissioned for himself and his wife to live in and you get to see a somewhat forlorn donkey meandering through an olive grove oh and you get to see & hear Segovia jamming a few tunes in the comfort of his own pad - that in itself is pretty awesome. For those of you that still have VHS players you can purchase a tape here instead of watching it on YouTube:
Watching this video triggered my memory of an Andres Segovia cassette tape that I would listen to many years ago.
The tape is long since gone but the memory of the extraordinary sound and musicianship lingers on. I do remember that the tape had the infamous Johann Sebastian Bach 'Chaconne in D-minor' on it. At that time I couldn't really appreciate the sheer domination of technique, memory, endurance, and musicality that anyone would need to possess to play this piece.
The Outspoken One
I must admit to moving away from listening to Andres Segovia recordings after hearing John Williams express his opinions about Segovia's domineering personality many years ago in his documentary 'The Seville Concert'. Segovia's masterclasses also seemed to show an intolerance of alternative interpretations of his transcriptions. I remember him mercilessly chastising a wonderful guitarist for playing one of his transcriptions of Bach's Fugue in E minor for using his own fingerings rather than Segovia's.
However, I find that I have put this to the side and returned to just kicking back and listening to some of the most beautiful classical guitar music that you're ever likely to hear. Los Olivos seems to show a different side to the larger-than-life legend.
Watching him petting a dog, enjoying a cup of tea with his wife, and telling his story of how his relationship with the famous Ramirez guitar makers began was awesome. Amazingly it was Segovia's first summer in 35 years that he spent at home just chillaxing rather than being out on the world stage in some far away exotic land mesmerising people with his personality and his playing.
Anyway that's all from me today. Time to start on the Chaconne... after a cup of tea! Now it's time for you to go and check it out but before you do I should mention that the opening piece is 'La maya de Goya' and I'll have a tutorial and classical guitar tabs and classical guitar sheet music available on the website very soon!