Sonatas and sonatinas Guitar music played by Nathan Kolosko - recommended by MALCOLM TATTERSALL 'Kolosko's playing is clean, fluent and assured ...'

The sonatas and sonatinas presented here are selected from the relatively few major solo works for guitar, an instrument which is blessed with an abundance of miniatures and a scattering of lovely concerti. The pieces by Turina and Ponce were both composed for the instrument's first modern superstar, Andres Segovia, while the other two were written a generation later for Julian Bream.

The guitar is particularly difficult for non-players to write for. The usual options are to be timidly conventional, to write something that is accidentally unplayable, or to work very closely with the guitarist who is to play the piece. Leo Brouwer, a virtuoso guitarist himself, has a great advantage here, since his intimate technical knowledge allows him to explore musical ideas with a freedom not available to the other composers on the disc. It is apparent from the very beginning of his Sonata [listen -- track 4, 0:00-0:34]. One might also compare the start of his third movement with the equivalent passage of Turina's Sonata. Here is Turina, colourfully percussive in a conventionally Spanish idiom [listen -- track 3, 0:00-0:30] and here is Brouwer, with coruscating tone colours emerging from the technical necessities of his theme [listen -- track 6, 0:00-0:39].

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