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4.0 out of 5 stars
An undiscovered classic, December 20, 2008
This review is from: Tangos & Valses (Audio CD)
As someone who is both a classical guitarist and a tango dancer, I give a very enthusiastic thumbs-up to this 2001 recording by Seattle-based guitarist Steven Novacek; it's an unsung masterpiece among classical guitar collections. It was a brilliant programming idea on Novacek's part to do a collection of tangos and waltzes. In particular, there are several wonderful tango transcriptions here. The Astor Piazzolla piece "Sur: Regresso al Amor" opens and closes with typically spikey Piazzolla segments; the middle section, whose lyrical and searching melody became the basis of the tango song "Vuelvo al Sur," is particularly effective in Novacek's hands. The collection includes not only the familar Issac Albeniz Opus 165 #2 'Tango in D' (in an arrangement that is refreshingly different from the classic Segovia trascription), but also an excellent arrangement of Albeniz's opus 164 #2 'Tango Espangol,' which is far less common on solo guitar. The Argentine tango classic 'El Choclo' is exciting and idiomatic in Novacek's approach; this performance has the same steady pulse that is an absolute requirement of any tango I would program for a milonga (tango dance). The waltzes include both the Chopin-influenced 'Valses Poeticos' by Granados and a set of guitar waltzes by the master of that form, Antonio Lauro.
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