Posts Tagged ‘fleta’
Agnew McAllister Duo at GSI
The Agnew McAllister Duo is Scottish guitarist Matthew McAllister and Irish flautist Aisling Agnew. They were in the US on tour and stopped by to play some guitars and shoot some videos at the showroom. Together they played a suite of pieces by French composer Sebastien Vachez that includes his Krynica, Un Ange and La Ballade d’Irina movements, with Matthew playing a great 1968 Fleta, then Matthew played Lauro’s Registro on a 1974 David Rubio ‘PF’ and Bach’s Sarabande on a 2007 Henner Hagenlocher.
Mak Grgic is currently studying for his master’s degree at USC, but he’s already played to audiences all over the world and won a few competitions. He stopped by the shop last week and recorded Bach’s Chaconne on a beautiful 1950 Ignacio Fleta (these are pretty rare – Fleta’s guitar output was very low until 1955, as he was mostly making other stringed instruments before that).
Here’s Marc Teicholz playing a 1936 Fleta that was actually a copy of a Torres that Fleta had in his shop for repair. Fleta made mostly violins until 1955, but he was smart enough in 1936 to take advantage of having the Torres in the shop. Marc and David thought it would be appropriate to play some Catalán music on a Catalán guitar, so Marc played Llobet’s arrangements of two Catalonian folk songs and Capricho Arabe by Tarrega.
Apparently Lee Nunes was watching Buster Keaton’s ‘The General’ when he happened to notice a striking similarity between this train and the plans of a guitar by Ignacio Fleta. It’s pretty uncanny. Good eye, Lee!
Here are some photos of Marc Teicholz at the shop in Santa Monica. On Sunday Marc will be playing some of the rarest guitars ever collected in one performance (details here). Here is the list of guitars that he will be playing:
1. 1867 Torres SP/MP
2. 1921 Santos SP/MP
3. 1930 Esteso SP/CSAR
4. 1936 Fleta SP/MP
5. 1952 Hauser SP/CSAR
6. 1969 Rodriguez “Churchdoor” CD/CSAR
7. 2007 Blochinger SP/MP
As you can imagine, it takes a minute to get used to so many different guitars, so Marc is getting acquainted (or reacquainted, as he played many of them on his CD Valseana) with them all as I write.
Current Inventory | Past Inventory
Ignacio Fleta was born in Huesa del Común, in the province of Teruel (although many biographies mistakenly have him born in Huesca), Spain on July 31st, 1897, into a family of cabinet-makers – an auspicious beginning for one destined to become a fine instrument builder. In childhood, he apparently showed great aptitude for music, as there are reports that by the age of 8 he was able to play both the bandurria and guitar proficiently. Formal instrument-making studies began at the age of 13, when he left home for Barcelona with his 2 older brothers, Manuel and Bienvenido. He began studying violin, cello and bass-viol construction, largely in the French tradition, from a series of established masters, including Benito Jaume, Etienne Maire and Philippe Le Duc from France. Principles of this training remained with Fleta over the entire course of his life, and his guitars were always constructed using the ‘violin’ method, which utilizes the technique of attaching the neck to the completed soundbox, as opposed to the ‘Spanish’ method, where the neck is attached to the sides at the outset of construction.
Here’s an article written by Marcelo Kayath, who in the early 80′s was considered one of the great up-and-coming guitarists of his generation (see his bio below). I find his thoughts on the current state of the guitar really interesting, but I have a feeling that not everyone will agree with him. I’m very curious to see what everyone has to say.
I’m reposting this because I was listening to it and it’s just beautiful. It’s Almer Imamovic playing Campanas Del Alba by Eduardo Sainz De La Maza on a 1971 Fleta.
