Antonio Lauro - La Negra

[@admin92706]

Beautifully played!! ❤

[@StevenWatsonMusic]

Thank you!

[@royrow8879]

Very beautiful

[@StevenWatsonMusic]

Thank you

[@MrSerpes]

"It's interesting how you can remember a performance as being not good, then when you listen to it a year later it seems okay! " Its true!

[@StevenWatsonMusic]

Yes, happens so often!

[@ClassicalGuitarMusings]

Excellent

[@StevenWatsonMusic]

Thank you

[@Nylon_and_Gut-MatteoLaurenzi]

Eccellente!!!

[@StevenWatsonMusic]

Grazie!

[@bertalink]

Lauro is always beautiful, but especially when played like this.

[@StevenWatsonMusic]

Yes I've really grown to love his music, thanks Bert!

[@drewburgess3039]

Thank you Steven, nicely done😊

[@StevenWatsonMusic]

Thanks Drew!

[@GarySchiltz]

You must be quite the perfectionist to have hesitated to post this. I'm glad that you did, you played it very well!

[@StevenWatsonMusic]

Thanks! Yes it's strange, I have to admit I've posted lesser performances... I must have been in a particularly fussy mood!

[@Josh.Vanjani]

Well played, Steven! Sure, it sounds possible that these are Savarez strings, there's a certain brightness to them. Nice Romantic Era style phrasing to bringing out the melody. I read through some of the other comments first so I didn't duplicate anything, but basically I'd say this tempo is fine; I'd rather listen to something interesting than one dimensional, like how some people interpret these pieces.

[@StevenWatsonMusic]

Thanks Josh, appreciate your comment

[@davepowell7168]

Looking for Natalie(valse criollo)and was pleasantly surprised, this piece was so rhythmically close. Thanks for posting your fine rendition

[@StevenWatsonMusic]

Glad you enjoyed it! Natalie's a great piece too

[@user-ii1jl1gh2d]

😊

[@RobMacKillop1]

It’s a beautiful piece, but I’m recognising in your interpretation, Steven, something that I struggle with when playing this same piece: trying to balance ‘poetic’ song-like phrasing with a South-American forward-momentum rhythm. As you will doubtless know, many players play it fast and in strict tempo, which on one level works, yet the melody seems too lovely for that treatment. So we try to find a way of bending the rhythm/tempo to reflect that, with the result that our interpretations feel just very slightly awkward in places. I of course say all this in open dialogue about the interpretive difficulties of this piece, as opposed to mere criticism. What do you think? Every ‘honest’ performance is an enquiry worth sharing, as here.

[@StevenWatsonMusic]

Yes, that's exactly why I was never happy with my performances of the piece and didn't post this video at the time -- the tempo is unsteady in places and too slow overall. I instinctively treat melody and harmony as the two most important qualities -- and Lauro was superb at both -- while rhythm takes a bit of a backseat. In this respect I'm really an old-fashioned sort of classical musician. I remember trying to take La Negra at the pace Lauro does in his recording. I could manage the speed but I couldn't make it dance in the same way. A lot of fast performances of the work seem to have a similar problem -- they sound rather matter-of-fact and unlovely. Lauro does actually use quite a bit of rubato, and it sounds slightly odd to my ears, though granted the recording quality is poor so may be misleading. There is also something beautifully melancholy about La Negra -- I don't want to lose that quality. It's a harder piece than it first seems!

[@kithg]

Lovely. Glad you eventually shared it. Do you still play it?

[@StevenWatsonMusic]

Thanks Kit. No, but reading through the score earlier it seemed to come back to me. I think I performed it a few times, so it is embedded in my memory.

[@StefanNiggl]

Wonderfully played! With nails?

[@StevenWatsonMusic]

Oh no, without -- this was only a year ago. Thanks Stefan!