Though I have absolutely no doubt that J D Florez is the best thing to come from Peru since Paddington Bear, I do wish he would record a few more complete works rather than these recitals.  I'm sure he sings Ah mes amis as well in Italian as in French, but I don't see the point in him recording  it - people know it's his calling card and if they haven't got a previous disc by him, they may buy this one as a result.

Mind you it was well worth hearing him do the big tenor number from Tell on his last recital in Italian, rather than the more usual French.

But some complete works would be nice.  He is one of the few singers in this particular repertory and it would be good to have his interpretations while he is in his prime.

Well,  yes, Ron, as a matter of fact, yes (swoon.)  In fact there is not a DVD player in our humble little back streets abode, but I bought La Fille du Regiment and took it down to my mum's.  She let me view it, and I sat through with Miss Potter with her (as she hasn't worked out how to work the control with her macular degeneration.)

We wager he got ragged at School! (Same idea as M***n Feldman is not it.) We tried listening to his stuff once, but it was all "jazzy" so we concluded he was not really very original.

Sydney,

Good music doesn't have to be 'original'; surely most music is a development of something that came before?

Thanks for those piccies, OS.

The cardboard upper left is probably from one of your Paper Dolls of Famous Composers collection. It looks like the little tab is there to permit a clipping-on. I'll wager it's R.Schumann's top hat or CMvWeber's swimming costume.

Are there any pluckers out there? I've long since stopped buying traditional classical guitar recitals - as an amateur player I tend to go for things I might like to play, but there are only so many renditions of Albeniz' Asturias one can take. I am, however, mining a rich seam these days of new discs reviewed by the excellent William Yeomans in "Gramophone" (heir to the guitar review spot from the late John Duarte). Most recent - reviewed in this month's mag - a disc of duets by the Arada guitar duo of pieces from Spain, Italy and Greece inc. pieces dedicated to the duo of Ida Presti and Alexander Lagoya. Their legendary duo playing is preserved on a tiny handful of discs and some fuzzy but awesome videos on youTube. Their career was cut tragically short by Ida Presti's death aged 43 - 9 years older than Julian Bream she might have dominated the generation after Segovia had she not dedicated herself exclusively to duo playing. A lovely disc.

Staples of the guitar repertoire are the studies (and other pieces) by Fernando Sor. Two recent gems taking sideways looks at Sor - a recital by Roland Dyens and the Quartet Arthur-LeBlanc of Dyens' arrangements of Sor pieces for guitar and string quartet, versions which bring magical added value to these gems (ATMA Classique, ACD2 2397), and a recital by David Starobin (Les plus belles pages Bridge Records 9166) played with minimal fingernails on a replica of a 19th century Viennese guitar. He too can be spotted on youTube!

Lastly - a glorious double CD (Stradivarius STR 33770) by Stefano Grondona of the complete guitar works of the Catalan composer Miguel Llobet, a composer, arranger and performer who died in the latter stages of the Civil War and whose career and contribution were overshadowed by the unattractively self-serving (and Franco-sympathising) Andres Segovia. Beautiful performances on an 1887 Torres guitar, an object of fascination in itself to guitar anoraks.

Also on the earlier side, I'm quite fond of this:

Thank you both, and yes harmonyharmony there is something about civil wars although Llobet died in some sad obscurity not on the battlefield.

I'm grateful for the Gordon Ferries tip - I have his disc of Gaspar Sanz pieces (La Preciosa) and shall seek out this one. I play early music albeit on a modern classical guitar, having tried authenticity and failed. I admire William Carter's playing, his more recent Santiago de Murcia disc also a gem, the no-fingernails technique required of today's authentic lutenist and baroque guitarist being one reason I've stayed on the modern instrument path (I also like more recent repertoire).

Thank you, and any more tips gratefully received.