RICARDO GALLEN : Fernando Sor Guitar Sonatas CD
SOR: Grande Sonate Op25; Sonate Op15b; Grand Solo Op14; Grande Sonate Op22.
Ricardo Gallen
Eudora Records EUD SACD 1401.
Fernando Sor wrote many guitar works, but some of the most important are these recorded here. Incidentally Gallen does use a 19th century instrument to make the sound even more like Sor would have played them. Indeed in my humble opinion Fernando Sor was by far the most important guitar composer in this period. I know of several others who were around about the same time but their music, for me at least, doesn’t have the depth of feeling, or indeed the compositional integrity that Sor’s pieces have.
The recording is lovely and clear and having been recorded in a church, the reverberation just adds to the performances.
The opening piece, the four movement Grande Sonate Op25 is a beautiful performance with the opening Andante Largo suitably emotive and the following Allegro Non Troppo showing just how exciting this piece is, with Gallen really proving he is an ideal performer of this material. Moreover at more than 27 minutes in total this Grande Sonate is a really substantial piece that our player manages excellently.
The next piece is the one movement Sonate Op15b, an Allegretto listed as the sonata seconda on the original manuscript, and is another lovely work that shows how wonderful a composer Sor was when compared to his contemporaries.
The Op14 Grand Solo is actually called the Sonata Prima Pour La Guitare on the original manuscript, which interestingly has a number of very different moments to the one Gallen has recorded here. I can only assume that somewhere along the line, after it was published initially, Sor (or someone else?) changed some of the music! Anyway, whatever the reason, it is a superb performance again.
The final work is the four movements Grande Sonate Op22, again a large work of 28 minutes duration that has many exciting and moving moments in its music.
So in summation this recording is a very valuable one that guitar lovers will adore. Gallen shows no difficulty whatsoever, which does prove how good he is, because these pieces are in no way easy to play!
Chris Dumigan
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