It’s to my understanding that the Segovia fingerings sound better, but they’re much harder. Christopher Parkening talks about this in a couple videos you can find on RU-vid. He changed the fingerings Segovia made, and Segovia was livid. He told Parkening to come back the next day with his fingering. And Christopher Parkening admits that they sounded much better.
He was the bigger person for coming back. Segovia came off like an egomaniac. He did damage to Chapdelaine's for no other reason than because he could.
3 месяца назад
Man, Chapdelaine is missed. Wisdom, Perspective, and courage…. And more skill than I’ll ever have.
Who the world do some of these people think they are to be criticizing Segovia? One was there to LEARN from him, not for an “everyone’s a winner” trophy to take home to mommy. Even Chapdelaine himself acknowledged that as much in the interview afterwards.
I am sorry you had an unhappy experience with Segovia. Most good teachers I know cut thru the bullshit and make corrections , especially if they are on camera..i am glad you had the balls to press on and tried to give the man what he wanted. i n my experience no established teacher would never put a student in the hot seat and make corrections, it would be a private matter. My hats off to you Chapdelaine for putting up with this kind of humiliation and hazing.
I'm not sure that I am accomplished enough as a guitarist to have a worthwhile opinion, but my instinctual reaction is that Segovia was too hard on Michael. I think Segovia should've explained to Michael why he thought his fingerings were better than Michael's.
in math...does it matter how you solve the problem, as long as your result is correct? I think not. well, I apply that same analogy with fingering. We are not robots and how we physically interact with the fretboard is a personal experience, and as such i think segovia should be more flexible, again..as long as your student achieves the correct result, basically there's more than one way to skin a cat.
he was 93 when he gave this lesson wow thats pretty amazing and michael should have just brushed the event off putting it down to age related grumpiness.
so it was only in the last performance that segovia lost his rag. If i ever made it to 90 the last thing i would want to do would be listening to students playing a piece of music that i thought i could play better specially if i was not feeling particularly well and who knows whatever else was going on in his private life etc
Segovia devoted his whole life to discipline and the Catholic tradition of obedience. He had to follow exactly what the superiors told him to, he had no chance for mistakes. He had to follow the perfection of what the composers wanted with the piece. In that unforgiving world, he expected everyone to play exactly his way.
Rest in Peace, Michael Chapdelaine. You have inspired many with your dedication to the guitar, your exploration to break out of the mold - and your story from this historic masterclass.
I guess one comes to a certain age when he realizes that things should be called for what they really are…it is a liberating feeling… So, that being said, I must say that I feel Segovia was a mediocre guitarist (to put it mildly), and clearly very frustrated because of it…on a top of that, he was a lousy teacher and not a very nice person.
I wouldn't excuse Segovia's behavior, but I would forgive him for it if I were in Michael's shoes. Segovia was very improtant in the development of classical guitar. We should appreciate him for that. And It happens that he has flaws just like the rest of us
Andre went too far in bashing the man for doing what he thought sounded good. I thought it sounded good. Andre was upset that he was using the wrong fingers! Then he gets so upset that the man doesn't SLIDE up to a note that he tells him to go take lessons from someone else. BS. Clearly, the classical guitar god is pretty much grumpy and senile at this time. Ego too large to admit that someone younger MIGHT have found a different way to play a piece. Sad, really. Alternatively, all he had to say was can you play the piece as it is transcribed? Or tell him nicely that he doesn't want to coach him if he doesn't play it exactly like he does! No need for the vicious go away. Clearly, Alzheimer's don't play!
"Mallorca", by Albeniz, for written for piano, transcribed by everyone, although Segovia's version was still pretty widely used in 1986. USC required that we use Segovia's editions at this class, but it really didn't occur to me that we had to use only his fingerings. I was quite younger with some touch of ignorance, but absolutely no arrogance. I made a mistake and paid for it with my career.
John Williams says Segovia bullied students and stifled their creativity. He says his former teacher forced pupils to play in his style and was musically snobbish. John believes that Segovia looked down on music without the right classical provenance and bullied young musicians with teaching methods that were unsympathetic and unhelpful.
My friend Fred Benedetti played the Chaconne the same day and Segovia mostly hummed along to stress a cantabile quality and then praised his approach vs a cold rendition reminding us all that Bach fathered 20 children! Watch Oscar Ghiglia play La Frescobalda in an old master class: he changed fingerings and added an extra variaton and Segovia was delighted.
He does care and does think he is important: ghastly man. Russell and Romero are humble encouraging teachers. In fact everything I have seen and read about Segovia tells me he was a nasty piece of work. I don’t even particularly like his sound: Bream, Russell, Williams, Parkening and Shibe all way better.
According to one of his biographers, in the late 20s Segovia set the following logic: what did not please him on the guitar, was not feasible. That logic gave Ponce a lot of overwork. For instance Segovia disliked playing bariolage or a campanella. Hence he stated that the prelude from BWV 1006, written for violin and filled with 2nd intervals, could not be played on the guitar. Same logic in this video: his transcription of Mallorca is the only way to play it on the guitar. Anything different is not musical. The "continue, I don't mind" @ 1:21 reminds me of myself learning Asturias in the 80s: "what if I play this chord like this?"; "do as you like", was the huffy reply. Edit: just to make it clear, the guitar teacher who replied was not Segovia 🙂 but greatly admired him, as much as I do.
Segovia as the "master" forgot 1 thing: Treat people with dignity and respect. This poor guy made silly mistakes and obviously did not prepared enough, but he did not deserve to be treated that way. Second time I see videos of him being arrogant and disrespectful. For that, I'll just play Mangore's and Lauro's videos
