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“The ideal sound of Isaac Albéniz’s music is indissolubly tied to the sound of the Torres guitar.” (Carles Trepat). Playing on two original Torres guitars Wulfin Lieske and Fabian Spindler have for the first time enabled the historical versions to be experienced in all their dimensions.

It must be said that the guitar was by no means established as a classical instrument in the second half of the 19th century, not even in Spain. Though Felipe Pedrell and Isaac Albéniz created the intellectual breeding ground, we owe the rebirth of Spanish music and the guitar as a concert instrument after its heyday in the 15th century to such musicians as Francisco Tárrega (1852-1909) and his pupils Miguel Llobet (1878-1938) and Emilio Pujol (1886-1980). Above all Tárrega, a trained pianist and composer as well as achieving epochal improvements in guitar technique, was thoroughly familiar with the real sound of his friend’s original works. Hence through his genius he was able – like Llobet and Pujol later – to regenerate Albéniz’s vision out of the spirit of the new, romantic Spanish guitar.

Albéniz never wrote for the guitar, but actually admitted that some of his compositions appealed to him more when played on the guitar. As if he had sensed this, his piano works first became world-famous as transcriptions. Very few listeners know the originals today and think the guitar versions are the authentic ones. Hence Albéniz is ranked far higher in the repertoire of guitarists than in literature for the piano.

The ideal sound of Isaac Albéniz’s music is indissolubly tied to the sound of the Torres guitar.”(Carles Trepat). Ever since 1869 Tárrega had been playing on an instrument made by the Spanish luthier Antonio de Torres (1817-1892). Its design and the extended scale length endowed the new model exceptional volume, giving it outstanding depth, majesty in the bass, inner potency, clarity of registers, warmth and carrying power. These characteristics therefore form a crucial component of the interpretation, along with the appropriate version and the corresponding fingering. Playing two original Torres guitars, Wulfin Lieske and Fabian Spindler have for the first time enabled the historical versions to be experienced in all their dimensions.