Fernando SOR (1778-1839)
Pieces De Societe
01 Minuet for guitar in E major, Op. 11,10
02 Minuet for guitar in E minor, Op. 11,9
03 Est ce bien ca, 6 pieces for guitar, Op. 48- No. 5 [Air]
04 Minuet for guitar in G major, Op. 11,3
05 Minuet for guitar in G minor, Op. 11,2
06 Folias de Espana for guitar, Op. 15- Les Folies d'Espagne variees
07 Folias de Espana for guitar, Op. 15- Menuet
08 Pieces De Societe, Op. 33- No. 3- Sicilienne
09 Pieces De Societe, Op. 33- No. 3- Marche
10 Minuet for guitar in A major, Op. 11,6
11 Minuet for guitar in A minor, Op. 11,7
12 Pieces De Societe, Op. 33- No. 1- Moderato
13 Pieces De Societe, Op. 33- No. 1- Allegretto
14 Petites pieces (6) for guitar, Op. 32- No. 5. Andante
15 Petites pieces (6) for guitar, Op. 32- No. 6. Galop
16 Minuet for guitar in D major, Op. 11,4
17 Minuet for guitar in D major, Op. 11,5
18 Caprice for guitar, Op. 50 ('Le Calme')
Nicola Jappelli, guitar
During the first thirty years of the 19th century the guitar was
the protagonist of a genuine social craze. Its epicenter was Paris,
though it progressively radiated to all the European capitals.
This typically "romantic" epoch was experienced by the
Catalan Fernando Sor, though in a spirit of enlightened rationalism
and with a profound sense of musical classicism.
An anti-French combatant in his youth, Sor later accepted an
administrative post from the occupying forces, only to be obliged
to go into exile at the subsequent Restoration; and like many
Spanish intellectuals, he never again returned to his country.
Paris from 1813-1815, London from 1815-1823, Russia from 1823 to
1826 and then again Paris in 1826/27 to 1839 - these were the
stations where he spent a life surrounded in celebrity, clouded by
a few regrets, and terminated in dignified yet humbling indigence.
Wherever he performed, his virtuosity attracted notice.
He was admired by Cherubini and Mehul, and was even called the
"Beethoven of the guitar" by Fetis. Most significantly,
he was the only guitarist to be invited to play with the London
Philharmonic Society in the first hundred years of its existence.
But though widely admired and even revered, he remained a somewhat
awkward figure in Paris. Both his severe, classical compositional
style and his development of a revolutionary guitar idiom featuring
a new harmonic, polyphonic and "orchestral" approach to the instrument,
plainly set him against the prevailing fashion. In this respect,
he can be said to be the true founder of the
modern day school of guitar playing and composition.
