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Ida Presti and her husband Alexandre Lagoya formed what has been called the greatest duo in the history of the classical guitar. They were to the duo what Segovia was to the solo instrument: they innovated technically and musically and made something like fifteen world tours, inspiring nearly all the best modern composers to write for the medium, while at the same time generating an entire new body of transcriptions from instruments such as the harpsichord. They also inspired and taught several other duos who are now among the best in the World, including
Ako Ito & Henri Dorigny
and the Athenian Duo (
Evangelos & Liza
). Their fame and impact were still accelerating when, on a tour of the United States in 1967, Ida Presti was taken suddenly ill and died. She was forty-two.
Presti/Lagoya's early recordings were on French RCA, and most of these were issued as a
2-CD boxed set
(7 43212 58662), now deleted. They then moved to Philips, for whom they re-recorded much of their repertoire.
The complete Philips recordings in turn were issued on a
3-CD boxed set
. That set, too, is now deleted; but, it is (happily) completely subsumed by the present
L'Art de Alexandre Lagoya
.
This album appears to be drawn from the Philips recordings, most which are available on CD in the set mentioned above; but the Scarlatti Sonata, K. 87, L. 33 is a rarity: I'm unaware of any CD containing their recording.
CONTENTS
a1) Bach: English Suite Nº 3, BWV 808: Courante
a2) Bach: English Suite Nº 3, BWV 808: Allemande
a3) Bach: English Suite Nº 3, BWV 808: Prelude
a4) Scarlatti: Sonata, K. 87, L. 33
a5) Scarlatti: Sonata, K. 380, L. 23
b1) Granados: Spanish Dance Nº 2, Oriental, Op. 37, Nº 2
b2-5) Marella: Suite Nº 1 in D Major
b6) Debussy: Clair de Lune
