Two of my favourite guitarists _ever_ Both guitar Gods in their own right. Paco Pena was such an influence to me as a little boy who was trying to replicate his orchestral rhythmical sound when I had no idea what flamenco was about. He opened the door for me. John Williams just inspired me to be fluid and accurate with feeling. I think it so cool that these two cats know each other and hang out together.
It's so disheartening to see people who probably have very little talent of their own, spit venom at someone like John Williams for no other reason than petty jealousy. Oh well, I guess that's par for the course on RU-vid.
It is the easiest "virtue" to express. They have little to no talent, so they feel compelled to dump on others for their hard work. Old human problem...
It's so different. The classical version by Bream savours the notes, the traditional version orchestrated by Peña here, emphasises the rhythm, exuberance and buoyancy.
That is what he whats us to believe...i made a mistake, but the mistake he was going to do, wasnt able to come to life, he put his fingers wrong, but he didnt pull the strings
I don't think many people appreciate the level of humility it requires for a world class musician to say he's "taking lessons" from another world class musician. I adore Segovia, but it would be unthinkable for someone with his character to say he was taking lessons from anyone.
I don't think many people appreciate the level of humility it requires for a world class musician to say he's "taking lessons" from another world class musician. I adore Segovia, but it would be unthinkable for someone with his character to say he was taking lessons from anyone.
While I am very glad to hear Seville played in such an energizing way, that reveals its flamenco origins, I don't believe it captures Albeniz' intent. Many late 19th century composers studied folk music, but sought to elevate it through what Dvorak called " bringing in the cavalry"- the full resources of classical harmony and counterpoint- to UPLIFT it, not just replicate it. It is a very delicate balance to capture the in-between quality of both a rhythmically strict physical dance, and the more elastic nuances of a mental dance. Is a Gigue by Bach, which, as John Williams knows well, is often fugal, and, coming at the end of a suite, introduces a whole new dimension into the suite; meant to be danced to? When Mr Williams plays Seville in a manner that Paco denounces as awful, he seems to go out of his way to lose the dance rhythm. which he does not do in his recorded versions. I believe, that the best approach will be true both to the folk origins, and the classical ENHANCEMENT of them.
You articulated what I was feeling Fred. The classical version is a performance version while the flamenco is for dance. If I'm sitting in an audience being entertained, Segovia's version is what moves me.
+Fred Haight I mostly agree with your view, although to me it doesn't matter much whether or not it captures Albeniz' intent: the fun about music is that it can have so many beautiful but very different interpretations. The thing I don't particularly like about this new version is that Williams seems so intent on keeping a strict dance rhythm, it loses much of the tension a bit of rubato can give.
Yes, and in a master class on the piece, Julian Bream stresses how the integrity of the dance rhythm cannot be lost, so I think Mr Williams and friend are being a bit disingenuous here.
Two master guitarist together Beautiful, first time i saw Paco in Saddlers Wells theater early 70s Just couldn't believe one guitar could sound this good n fill the whole theater with beautiful sounds, one of the most pleasurable guitar albums i got is Paco playing Latin American music sadly Very scratched but when he plays La Bamba no other version comes close yellow bird sounds beautiful too but not been able to find it again LP or CD anyone has it Please upload it
Segovia spent his whole life trying to establish the nylon string classical guitar as a pillar of pure classical art music, which he succeeded in doing. As a result, he was almost hostile to any kind of variation from the romantic idiom as he saw it. He disparaged the playing of two of guitar's greatest composers, Augustín Barrios Mangoré and Heitor Villa Lobos simply because they played steel string guitars. John benefits from being a second-generation, as it were, with a broader perspective.
Segovia tried hard but failed, the guitar for playing art music is still snubbed by the classical mainstream and lost sight of in the cacophony of myriads of louder, coarser guitars in pop, folk and jazz. Most people sadly don't look for beauty in music.
You are quite right about Segovia not playing Barrios but I don’t think you are with Villa Lobos I am pretty certain the 5 preludes were written for Segovia.
Honestly, I think John Williams should have tried to learn real flamenco if he liked it so much. Those classical pieces are influenced by flamenco, they are not really flamenco pieces.
a flamenco sevillana is quite another thing with rigid pulsing rhythm (originally played as accompaniment for singers and dance). The music of Albeniz, Granados, Turina etc. has a different background
20 years ago i intruduced my sisters to john william's sevilla record (from napster)... their reactions were: "it sounds like piano" and ''it's definitely 2 guys playing''...
While his teacher Segovia doesn't seem to really like flamenco, It just shows that John Williams, not like Segovia, is open to flamenco and other kinds of music.
I agree Niko. Williams albums have covered a lot of different types of music down the years even forgetting Sky stuff. He is a very open guy and simply plays what he likes not want people think he should.
I am very glad to hear this, and to find Albeniz' Seville's roots, in flamenco. However, was it Albeniz' intent to perform it so literally as dance? Classical music, from at least Bach on, has treated dance as a delicate balance between a literal physical, and a more elastic, mental approach. Listen to Alicia de Larrocha play the piano original, and you will be surprised by the tempo variations. To my mind, Bream gets it right. He never loses the dance, but does allow it to pause and breathe.
Fred Haight I think there’s legitimate scope for interpretation there. Playing it with a danceable rhythm is a valid and interesting approach, and too much ornamentation ends up boring, but this isn’t a “sevillana” - fir a start, sevillanas are almost always played in a series of 4.
Sarebbe bello un video nel quale il brano "Sevilla " sia oltre che suonato con le chitarre, danzato col suo naturale ritmo flamenco. In questo video i chitarristi e la ballerina hanno dato l 'idea di come allestire un delizioso spettacolo.
John and Paco, after 4 years I am writing another comment... May we please hear the Sevillana style with Sevilla woven into it? I wish I could find the whole piece played by these two Masters
I think this rendition is close to John's idea of infusing the classical style with the dance rhythm of the flamenco of Seviliana: → ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-D5wpEN6DEdY.html
Segovia did not like the flamenco because he was fairly close minded. He did not like things to change. John Williams described Segovia's teaching method as authoritarian and wanted students to play with his style only, which he deemed the "right" classical way.Segovia was extremely dogmatic, when it came to the guitar.
Yes, it is folk. it is not classical. But Segovia's complaint was that the flamenco that Paco de Lucia and even Sabicas played was not real flamenco...Segovia was extremely arrogant. I think it was John Williams(if I am not mistaken) that played him a piece once, Segovia said that it was a nice piece, and proceeded to ask who wrote it. When Williams told him, and Segovia did not recognized the composer, he started to express some disdain.
Jørgen Oktober Storm Nestande Thyrum You would be surprised how much folk music is embedded into classical music from past to the present. Beethoven's 9th symphony is based on a melody from a drinking song of the day and his teacher Haydn especially loved folk music. Segovia was close minded. He did have a fairly large understanding of music, but with the guitar it had to be his classical understanding and approach. He once stopped a student from playing the chaccone in a master class because he did not use his fingering and then proceeded to kick him out. That's fucked up.
Segovia did a lot for the classical guitar, but he seems to have been rather petty and something of a snob. His attitude towards Paco de Lucia and Sabicas - each a greater genius than Segovia - did not befit a truly great musician. Contrast that with Paco de Lucia’s humility.
I guess there are no names, as you could think as a single. At the beginning he plays a Rumba and at 0:25, Sevillanas (I think the second guitar player is called "Didi"), both of them not considered Flamenco by many :-)
From 2:15 : he says 'it is a dance'....no it's not a dance, it's a classical composition where one is free to vary the rhythm. Alicia De Larrocha does this and, more to the point, John Williams does this himself in his 1964 recording, which, as a matter of fact, IMHO has much more fire and passion (and therefore Spanish character) than his later, rather tame version (of 1981). It's funny that he plays a fragment in the style of his 1964 recording (a bit exaggerated though) and than says 'it is awful'...
You are right; it is a classical composition. If he wanted dance, he should play in the flamenco style with the dancer, so that the music adds to the dance performance. However, with John Williams there is a caveat: he is a great interpreter of classical music, but a bad improviser. He wanted to go somewhere else from the purely classical approach, somewhere "in between dance and classical", and obviously needed some help. Paco Pena, on the other hand, is no classical guitarist therefore John needed much careful thought what to add to the classical piece that it does not sound brash and overly percussive like flamenco does. I heard his performance based on this approach, recorded in Monsalvat, Victoria, and it is rather interesting.
It’s an extremely humble thing John is admitting and doing in this clip. This is rare in classical guitar world. Note he can’t keep time through the entire piece, barely makes a page of it before falling off. It’s not about the actual dance, rather it’s about the rhythm the dance is based on. Anyway, the real dance is several clicks slower (the girl is dancing the actual dance in the clip). But again, few classical players admit to timing errors, rather make excuses to justify their interpretation.
This video is as old as 2006 or 2007 when I first watched it. Can anyone say, whether the Sevillana that they were jamming for, originating in Albeniz' Sevilla was ever finalized? Great work John and Paco. Now, after 8 years of showing us this wonderful jamming, can we finally hear the end result? The one thing I long to hear, crowning the wonderful career of these two splendid musicians is this. So again: Can we finally listen to Albeniz' Sevilla reincarnated as a Sevillana please..????
I know Pena is a god at flamenco and John is very good at classical guitar. But for Pena to say John is the best when Julian literally revived Spanish guitar is sorta silly. Bream's version of this piece is so full of feeling and John's live performance at the end feels rushed. Idk.
@@hideare personal opinion… Williams playing Albeniz and Granados to me keeps the rhythm going more solidly than Bream but that’s just my opinion. It happens to be Paco Peña’s too he just said he found classical guitarists and indeed Spanish classical guitarists playing Spanish music take a lot of liberties with Rhythm that Williams does not. You just don’t like it because you prefer Bream and that’s fine!!!
@@bd1845 you may be right. I adore Bream. I love paco also. But in his playing i only hear traditional flamenco, in Bream, i hear something more, which i think was Albeniz's intention. Sorry if my comment seems arrogant. That was not my intention. I love them all.
John Williams is incredible but my one hang up with him is that unlike Bream he didn't commission pieces for the guitar by great composers and didn't even seem to even try. I love that he rediscovered Barrios but I just wonder why he hasn't pushed for more new pieces for the guitar by some of the greats. Pity because Bream brought so much more to the repertoire.
Sadly a lot of that repertoire is never played not because no one can but it’s not very memorable. Have you actually sat and listened to the Henze Royal Winter Music!!! I think with Williams and I agree somewhat with you but he’s just if you write a piece then do it not because I’m asking you, he has had a lot of pieces written for him down the years too though.
Juan Antonio Zuleta as you said, it is "based" on flamenco. Williams plays it like it is flamenco. Bream explains it in one of his interviews that Albeniz never intended to reproduce flamenco on piano, but to enhance it by classical piano style, and that means you do not play it in flamenco rhythm, as paco pena says rhythm is the key here and traditional rhythm is how this piece is NOT meant to be played. As simple as that.
hideare that is Bream’s interpretation of Albeniz’ intent. I believe Williams is correct. It is a Sevillana. A dance and Bream plays it the Segovia style, breaking the rhythm completely.
@@juanantoniozuleta6575 if you want to know Albeniz's intent, you should know that he composed it for piano. Listen to piano performances and see if they play it like williams or bream. Then think again please. Albeniz composition is not about rhythm at all.
hideare that it was composed for piano is common knowledge. You los seen to five piano players and you get five different interpretations...but it is still a sevillana. Williams ad Peña understand that perfectly.
Two John Williams, 1) American film composer (StarWars, sci fi epics, won Oscars) 2) Australian Classical Guitarist, one if three favored by maestro Andres Segovia. This John Williams is one of the best of our era, globally famous. I admire both men for their professional contributions.
