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La Chitarra di Liuteria-Masterpieces of Guitar Making
by Stefano Grondona & Luca Waldner
Text in English & Italian
English translation by Laura Davey
Photography by Massimo Mandelli
216 pages with over 400 breathtaking photos-mostly in color.
Hardbound w/ CD $119.95 Available once again 8 28 07
This extraordinary book that was published in July of 2002 was a decade in the making. Stefano Grondona (who studied with maestro Andrés Segovia in the 1960's) & luthier Luca Waldner have assembled a historical montage of Antonio Torres guitars & instruments by Spanish & European luthiers from the 18th, though mostly 19th & 20th century. There is many cases also biographical information & photos of the artists who used and owned these wonderful musical instruments. The accompanying CD of 28 tracks, by artist Stefano Grondona, of well known classical guitar pieces, utilizes his access to the Torres (built in 1858-FE 08-this guitar won the 1858 Seville exposition, 1859-ex collection-Miguel Llobet, 1862-back & sides of paper maché, 1885, 1887- SE107 & SE110), Garcia (1906), Simplicio (1929), Santos Hernandez (1918), Domingo Esteso (1926), Hermann Hauser I (1947), & Robert Bouchet (1969) concert guitars. There are many more guitars by these makers, than featured on the CD.
Sheldon Urlik, who released his own book "A Collection of Fine Spanish Guitars from Torres to the Present" in 1997, said: "This is the most beautiful book about classical guitars I've ever seen".
I've been half joking for weeks, that buyers should use a surgical mask when viewing the book, so they don't drool on the pages. If you love beautiful looking & sounding classical guitars and want a serious historical perspective to read: your time has arrived. It will be quite a long time, if ever before this book is surpassed.
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