I was browsing through a couple of issues of Classical Guitar Magazine last night and saw a few words from Graham Wade on a comments page from the December 2012 issue.
Segovia is one of those great guitarists that I’ve tried to love so many times, but I have never been able to enjoy – my loss – finding his style overly mannered and gratuitous, among other things. As an aside, I suppose that now that I’m used to a different recording aesthetic as well, so often his earlier, better, recordings grate ever so slightly.
Anyway, despite listening to someone eulogise over his playing nearly always baffling me, in Graham’s reiteration of the obvious there’s a gentle reminder that Segovia will always mean slightly different things to different generations. He died before I was born, and Graham will forever find him more relevant and visionary than I.
What are your thoughts on Segovia – overrated/incomprehensible or the sublime peak of a golden age?
Sean Shibe 