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Kazuhito Yamashita’s playing of Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition is devastating.
He premiered the work at the 1984 Toronto festival/competition and changed the classical guitar scene forever. Players attending the festival could not believe what they were seeing and hearing. They were realizing for the first time that there are talented and SUPER-talented players. Yamashita is a loner in the super-talented category. No other player will EVER play the work so well and make a similar impact. I mean he literally invented a series of techniques to be able to play the work... total independence of the fingers in order to achieve special effects and amazing feats like tremolo using the little finger or the index finger alone just to mention one or a Stanley Jordan approach to both hands plucking.
If the classical guitar was ever played like a "miniature orchestra", that was the time.
Yamashita can never be boring... some of his squeaking can hurt some compositions and his need to show off often gets in the way... No matter what we say or do, we have to come to terms with the reality that only certain players can play certain pieces.
After Yamashita's performance in Toronto, the festival slowly and steadily came to an end. There are not enough Yamashita's around to keep the interest alive.
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Hi Steven Liu ! What's your favorite recording of Yamashita? I am not a particular fan of transcribing symphonies onto the guitar (although I tried to transcribe the Intro of "Tristan & Isolde" once, haha), but his technical and timbral capabilities are mind-blowing!
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Martin I like many of his Bach's recordings. Want to check with you whether or not he is the one with most bach recordings? He has currently released albums including: solo violin (bwv 1001-1006), works for lute (bwv 996-999), complete suites for solo cello (bwv 1007-1012).
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Steven Liu Wow, that is hard to top!
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I have been following Kazuhito Yamashita since the late 70's. Yamashita has more than 100 CDs. He recorded all the major guitar concerti, complete Bach violin sonatas, cello & lute suites more than 20 years ago. He has also recorded all of Sor's works. I have many of his LPs and CD's including Pictures of an Exhibition, Beethoven Violin Concerto, Stravinsky, Dvorak. His first Bach LP Partita in D minor BWV1004 & Cello Suite No. 6 was recorded when he was still a teenager. His 2-CD Beatles set is simply incredible. He has performed for Omni Foundation in San Francisco numerous times over the years. In 2015, he performed the complete Bach Cello Suites in one day in San Francisco. You can check out Sergio Assad and David Tannebaum talks about this concert https://youtu.be/S1qQYFWnroc. In 2018, Yamashita performed the 24 Caprichos by Tedesco for Omni Foundation in San Francisco. Kazuhito's daughter Kahani is a Berlin-based guitarist and she regularly performed in concerts & festivals in Europe. I am a big fan of Kazuhito.
Here is a photo of me & Kazuhito in 2015 in San Francisco.
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Bill Young wow, that is incredible ! How do you manage to have a photo taken with him?
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Steven Liu I have known Kazuhito for decades and we are friends. I have also met one of his sons. I have picture with him from 30 years ago.
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Kazuhito Yamashita’s North America Debut at Guitar ‘84 in Toronto. The audience gave him a standing ovation after his first piece of the program - Sor’s Op. 9.
End of the Year Challenge: Finish Strong!
