Search - Barrios, Lemaigre :: Guitar Works 1

Dissapointing

Mark Antony | United Kingdom | 04/11/2004

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Phillipe Lemaigre is the first guitarist to record all the guitar works so far published of the great Paraguyan composer Agustin Barrios Mangore. This CD contains a selection of pieces by this composer. The performer has clearly put a lot of rescearch into Barrios works in general, and he displays excellent technique. The problem is if Lemaigre has any idea of how to express music of a romantic nature it is not often evident in his playing. "Pagina D'Album" and the much recorded "Julia Florida" are two that suffer most. These two romantic gems are subjected to innapropriately fast tempo, and extremes of ponti cello, and generally poor tone quality, which affects much of Lemaigre's playing. If you are looking to add some rarely heard Barrios pieces to your collection, this recording will help to fill that gap. For example, Tu Imagen is charming and deserves to be heard. Moreover, in these pieces Phillipe Lemaigre's interpretations do not suffer by comparison to the numerous other players who have recorded this music. However, far more expressive performances of Barrios can be found on Antigoni Goni music of Barrios vol1 of Enno Voorhorst guitar music vol2, or Music of Barrios by David Ruessell."