manen's fantasia-sonata

Perhaps the most under-rated, under-known and (consequently) under-performed piece of the 20th century "Segovia" repertoire for the classical guitar is the Fantasia-Sonata of Joan Manen (1883 - 1971).

The work is both reflective and very lively (nearly virtuosic). Harmonically it's modal/tonal, and it's lyrical. Overall it isn't a difficult piece to listen to. But one reason a piece like this can suffer is that, even though it is played without pausing, there really are 5 movements to the work. When we hear it presented as one 19 minute track without knowing that it is in fact a multi-movement work it can be hard to keep one's bearings. Here are the movements:

Largo
Allegro
Adagio cantabile, quasi in modo di un recitativo, ma in tempo
A tempo (Allegro Assai)
Tempo primo (Largo)

Really it doesn't vary that much from the traditional sonata one might expect even of Schubert, except that the introductory Largo reappears at the end.

The piece's title Fantasia is not without cause: done in the tradition of Berlioz, etc, it's opening theme reappears (transformed) throughout the work:


I don't know on what album Segovia's recording originally appeared (which album might be difficult to track down these days, anyway). It's currently available on the cd compilation simply called Dedication (which I highly recommend because it contains many, many awesome pieces and the recording quality is very good -- i.e. you can really hear Segovia's vast tonal palette).