In a coherent choice of content, the Argentine guitarist brings together works by Fernando Sor, Napoléon Coste, and Luigi Legnani, all framed within the Classical-Romantic period of the guitar repertoire.
Analía Rego shines in these performances, both as an experienced master and as the enormously talented and versatile guitarist she is, offering us delightful music for our enjoyment, drawn from an original guitar repertoire that is rarely performed.
by Fabio Caputo Rey
When thinking about the terms fantasy or caprice, by the influence of literature over so many centuries, it seems difficult not to relate them to the artist’s soul, naturally fickle, as these states of mind, specially when it comes to love affairs, were a perfect tool used by novelists to introduce complexity and depth to the characters’ nature, allowing them to act apparently without logic or common sense, causing perplexity in the reader. If we give credit to this conception, speaking playfully and lightly, it sounds ideal, that an exquisite artist like Analía Rego gives us an album entitled Fantasies and Caprices as a welcome whim of her sensitivity, for mere self-satisfaction, just as the famous guitarist Andrés Segovia once said: “because I can”.
But those who are fully acquainted with Analía Rego and her long artistic career, understand that she never lets fancy guide her performances. There is always an earnest and defined aesthetic purpose, built on solid grounds, so much in the choice of works as in their interpretation, both in the technical and expressive aspects, which for so long has ceased to be the rule in artistic manifestations, unfortunately, and in particular with guitar music albums, where mostly when inquiring about the reasons for certain choices, the answer to get is “because I like it”. That is, the very whim placed on a throne.
Therefore, we are able to see that, contrary to its paradoxical title, this is not a capricious album. In a coherent content selection, our artist joins works by Fernando Sor, Napoléon Coste and Luigi Legnani, all of them enclosed in the classical-romantic period of the guitar repertoire.
Which leads us to ponder about the character of these proposed musical forms: fantasies and caprices. Both are free forms, where composers can express their inspiration at will. Throughout the history of music, authors sometimes needed to articulate their discourse freely, without the constraints imposed by form. Although this manifested at all times, it was more pronounced during Romanticism, as opposed to Classicism, where the pure musical form was preferred as an expression of excellence. This is why so many sonatas and symphonies emerged, which demand the masterful and balanced handling of musical discourse.
It is during the Renaissance, when fantasies appear as a free expression of authors, where too many examples by lutenists and vihuelists can be found. Caprices however are mainly an expression of Romanticism, and an obvious reference is the 24 caprices for violin by Niccolò Paganini.
It can be said that fantasies tend to be longer than caprices, they can hold several movements, they can explore a very wide range of states of mind, and even fall into a contemplative and reflective mood, or homage, as it is here the case of the Elegiac Fantasy by Sor. Caprices instead, tend to show a more lively and playful mood, and may have a certain unpredictability, too, as in real life.
Who represents the caprices in this recording is Luigi Legnani (1790 — 1877). Possibly influenced by Paganini’s work, who was a friend of Legnani, and following the model already established by Johann Sebastian Bach in The Well-Tempered Clavier, he composed in his opus 20 a set of 36 caprices for guitar in every major and minor key, an expression of both technical prowess and didactic purpose for students of the instrument. Published in 1813, this is a set of short pieces in study form. None takes up more than one page in length, exhibiting a range of every technical possibility on the guitar: chords, arpeggios, slurs and scales. A dilemma in the guitar is that some keys sound better than others do, due to the natural tuning of its strings in E; consequently, certain keys like the flats sound dry, because the rest of the strings do not resonate sympathetically. Legnani himself had paid attention to this issue, and the great luthier Georg Stauffer from Austria had built him a special 8-string guitar, where the last two strings might be tuned and vibrate open in accordance to the composer’s and performer’s intention.
Analía Rego chooses 4 of these caprices in keys naturally suited to the guitar. Number 2, in E minor, presents the technical difficulty of highlighting the melody of the top voice without employing the rest stroke, while simultaneously maintaining consistent pressure on the notes serving as accompaniment or harmonic support. Number 7, in A major, cheerful and dance-like, requires careful study due to the rapid position changes of the left hand in chords (prestissimo). Number 9, in E minor, apparently naive in theme, but demanding particular attention to changes in expression and dynamics, holds a remarkable recitativo cantabile in operatic style, displaying on the guitar another of Legnani’s talents, who reportedly had “a beautiful tenor voice” according to documents from his time. Number 15, in B minor, with a martial tone and majestic motif, proves very useful for studying slurs in the triplet section.
Fernando Sor (1778 — 1839) is rightfully regarded as one of the fathers of the guitar and one of its most famous composers. The Elegiac Fantasy op. 59, dedicated to his piano student Charlotte Beslay’s death, is one of the composer’s last works and one of his masterpieces.
Categorizing a composer’s career into three stages: an initial learning stage, a second of mastery, and a third of transcendence, we consider that Sor had definitely reached this final stage when he composed this work, because of the profound contemplation of this music, which, although a sad farewell, remains intensely captivating. The fantasy consists of an introduction, an andante largo in three clear parts, the second of which is somewhat more luminous, as if evoking heartwarming memories, and it ends with a heartfelt funeral march, an unusual musical form for the guitar. Sadness is the leitmotif throughout almost the entire piece, and Sor emphasizes the gravity of the topic by keeping the minor mode and melodies in the bass register of the guitar.
The following fantasy is by Napoléon Coste (1806 — 1883), the most important guitar composer and virtuoso in France during the 19 th century. The source of the Lison op. 47 is a true concert piece, very beautiful and original, establishing Coste as a consummate composer.
Citing the unparalleled description by the French author and librarian Charles Nodier: “Imagine a wild and woody valley, closed off to the east by a mass of rocks whose upper levels form an amphitheatre and are covered in trees. Under these rocks a cavern yawns; and from this excavation in the living rock, transparent waters well up and form an abundant cascade, interrupted a hundred times by the obstacles that meet it in its course.”. Such is the scene. The Lison River emerges suddenly from a cavern. It is located in the Doubs region, where the composer himself was born, and is part of a group of compositions also dedicated to landscapes of his homeland.
The work is ambitious. It is not simply about the musical “picture” of a cavern and a waterfall. It is composed in a style quite in vogue among 19 th -century composers: that of the “folk or village festival” (Fête villageoise). This kind of work is based on the development and sublimation of peasant dances, with great examples found in Beethoven’s Symphony No. 6 “Pastoral”, Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique and Smetana’s famous symphonic poem The Moldau, which depicts a peasant wedding along the course of the river. In the guitar, it has the precedent of Sor’s beautiful Fantaisie Villageoise op. 52, who, not coincidentally, was Coste’s teacher. Coste’s Fantasy is divided into 3 clear sections: the first one imitates the murmuring of the water, followed by an adagio, slow, which can well be understood as the rural idyll, the peacefulness of the countryside at sunset; the third part is the longest, consisting of a rondeau based on a recognizable folk dance and the ensuing festival.
The guitar used in this recording deserves special mention, as shown in the cover photograph: it is a replica of an original romantic guitar of the time, tuned in A at 430 Hz., with the sole difference of the strings, which are now nylon instead of gut as they were back then. This is yet another example of our artist’s dedication and pursuit of excellence, in trying to achieve the ideal sound quality befitting for these works. Since it is a smaller guitar than the current ones, its sound balance changes, it must be played with a different technique, and when studying the fingerings and hand positions, it becomes clear why the composers wrote the way they did. The modern guitar may have more volume, but being bigger, makes it more difficult for the left hand to perform certain chords or effects written in the score, too. Therefore, when we listen to this music, played on an instrument as similar as possible to that of its time, we are able to realize why these performances manage to affect us in a more personal, even more intimate, way.
As always, Analía Rego shines through these performances, both as the accomplished maestra and as the immense talented and versatile guitar player that she is, giving us some delightful music for our enjoyment, extracted from an original and rarely performed guitar repertoire, which is something to be grateful for. She invites us to explore at ease in the corners of these fantasies, with the playful spirit of the German “wandern”, free from the constraints of the form, but also to meditate about how these great composers with their imagination used that
freedom, not in a chaotic way, but always with a clear and honest intention. Cause despite the title fantasies or caprices, these works are far from whimsical, whether their purpose was didactic, pictorial, tearful, or supplicant, in the compositions contained in this beautiful album.
A valuable lesson that, even in these times of grandiloquent innovations and proclaimed alleged originalities, remains evidently relevant.
Analía Rego is an Argentine guitar professor and concert performer. Her impeccable technique and expressive depth have earned her recognition among the most distinguished soloists in her country. With a “romantic and charismatic” artistic personality, her style combines the classical school with the tradition of Argentine popular guitar.
She maintains an intense career as a teacher and concert performer in Argentina, while also undertaking frequent international tours (United States, Chile, Mexico, Finland, France, Switzerland, Germany, England, Spain, Italy, and Sweden). She has been invited to prestigious festivals, including multiple performances at Guitarras del Mundo (Buenos Aires, Argentina), VI International Regino Sáinz de la Maza Week (Burgos, Spain), Frutillar Musical Weeks (Chile), “Miguel Llobet” International Guitar Competition (Barcelona, Spain), Hamburger Gitarrenfestival (Hamburg, Germany), Guitarras en Otoño (Mexico City, Toluca, and Morelia, Mexico), Petrer Guitar Festival (Spain), Uppsala International Guitar Festival (Uppsala, Sweden), Sundsvall’s Guitar Festival (Sundsvall, Sweden), among others.
As a classical guitarist, her aesthetic focus is centered on the 19th-century repertoire. Since 2010, she has been part of a classical-romantic instrument duo with flutist Gabriela Galván, with whom she has performed concerts in Argentina, Spain, and Italy.
Analía studied under the guidance of Irma Costanzo and Anibal Arias, and participated in master classes with Abel Carlevaro, Eduardo Isaac, and David Russell. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Music (UNLa) and teaches at the Escuela de Música Popular de Avellaneda (Province of Buenos Aires, Argentina). She has also offered tango guitar courses during her tours in various European cities and in her home country.
As a researcher, she collaborated with the American publishing house “Editions Orphée,” writing a preface for a compilation of solo guitar pieces, More Tangos Milongas Habaneras for Guitar.
