– Customer review on 29/05/2011

One wonders how the producers of this two CD set were able to obtain the rights to such outstanding performances, then put the whole thing together and still make money on the product.

Economic issues aside, this is an outstanding collection of guitar pieces by the best performers and composers. Pepe Romero, John Williams, Andres Segovia, Julian Bream have several performances each. Some lesser known but excellent performers appear as well. Paco Pena, the superb Flamenco stylist, does two traditional Spanish tunes. Composers include Rodrigo, Albeniz, Bach, Tarrega, Torroba, Vivaldi, Villa-Lobos, Granados, and many others. Stanley Myers' "Cavatina", the theme to The Deer Hunter, fits in surprisingly well, although not strictly speaking a classical piece.

Rodrigo's "Concierto de Aranjuez" played by Pepe Romero, with Marriner's Orchestra of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, is terrific. I liked it better than the more familiar versions of Julian Bream and John Williams. It seems more "Spanish", perhaps due to Romero's flamenco background, but I am only guessing at that. Marriner's superb orchestra certainly adds to the performance.

The technical quality seems to be excellent.

Highly recommended as an introduction for those new to the classical guitar and a valuable compilation of canonical performances for the aficionado.