=o Fn na DDD BOS rar ¢ t 8.554354 25 Etudes, Op. 38Napoléon Coste (1805-1883) Guitar Works, Op. 38 Napoléon Coste was France’s greatest guitar composer and, together with Mertz, the guitar composer most representative of the Romantic style. He was born in the village of Amondans in the picturesque Loue river valley, immortalized by the painter Gustave Courbet. Coste’s father, the village mayor and a former infantry captain, patriotically named his son after the new Emperor (1805 was the year of Ulm and Austerlitz, but also of Trafalgar) and groomed him for a military career. From age six, young Napoléon also began to play guitar, taking his first lessons from his mother. At the age of eleven Coste suffered an extended and serious illness, and the family seems to have abandoned any plans for his military career. The youthful Coste, living in Valenciennes, gained local fame as a performer and teacher of the guitar, and in 1828 even played duets with the visiting Italian virtuoso Luigi Sagrini (they performed Giuliani's Op. 130). In 1830, the year of the July Revolution, Coste moved to Paris to pursue his career. The French capital was not only one of the great cultural centers of the world but also, since the 1820s, home to a guitaromanie, a rage for the guitar, which was attracting performers from throughout western Europe, especially the Italian states and Spain. Coste, who apparently had little formal training in music, studied theory and composition in Paris and also became the friend and pupil of Fernando Sor (1778- 1839), the esteemed Spanish composer and guitarist. One of Coste’s concerts in 1838 opened with a duet featuring Sor in his last documented public appearance. The piece they performed may well have been Sor's Souvenir de Russie, op. 63, which was the last piece Sor published in his lifetime and his last numbered work; it was dedicated ‘a son ami, N. Coste.’ Simon Wynberg, in his edition of Coste’s works, also cites an extant copy of Sor’s Divertissement, Op. 62 (1838) which carries a similar, handwritten dedication. Whichever piece they performed, this friendship between the Spanish maestro and the brilliant young Frenchman would prove historically important for both men, for Coste derived 8.554354 considerable prestige from his reputation as Sor’s last and greatest puj return, Coste made several icant contributions to Sor’s legacy. Coste’s own compositions began to appear in print in the 1840s, and in about 1851 he also published a Complete Method for Guitar by Fernando Sor. This work, in spite of its title, was in fact a new method for the guitar by Coste himself, based on the technical principles he had learned from Sor, and augmented with a number of Sor’s studies as well as a few original pieces by Coste. It is not to be confused with Sor’s own Method of over a decade earlier, which was not really a ‘method’ at all in the traditional sense but instead a remarkable discussion of guitar technique, primarily descriptive, with few musical examples, Thus, Coste’s work filled a void, since it provided a pedagogical system by which beginners could learn to play in the manner of Sor, in contrast to the ‘methods’ of Sor’s rivals such as Carulli, Careassi, and Molino. Whether Sor himself authorized this project or would have approved is impossible to know. Nevertheless, the work ‘was successful if one judges by the number of editions which followed; its profound influence on guitar pedagogy is best illustrated by the following anecdote: In 1945, the virtuoso Andrés Segovia published a set of twenty studies by Sor. In his introduction to the work, Segovia praised these pieces for demonstrating the ‘right balance between ... pedagogical purpose and .. natural musical beauty’ and recommending them both to the student who wished to develop superior technique, and to the master who wished to maintain An instant classic, these twenty ‘Segovia studies’ thereafter become ubiquitous in guitar pedagogy, and remain so today. But, in an article in Soundboard in 1984, the Norwegian guitarist and musicologist Erik Stenstadvold pointed out that sixteen of the Segovia twenty were among the twenty-four Sor studies Coste had selected for his 1851 Method, and, furthermore, that virtually every digression from Sor’s original to be found in Coste’s edition, including the occasional 2editorial error, is duplicated in the Segovia collection, Nor is this the only way in which modern guitarist who perform Sor’s works are indebted to Coste. In the 1870s, when many of Sor's works had gone out of print, Coste published new arrangements of several of the maestro’s duets, Bryan Jeffery, in his biography of Sor, notes that it was Coste who was responsible for the most frequently heard modern arrangement of Sor’s L’Encouragement, op. 34. This piece had been originally conceived as a duet for master and student, with one part considerably more difficult than the other; in Coste’s edition and in the many modern editions based on it, the two guitars share back and forth the more difficult melodic lines, creating an equal duet with greater appeal to concert performers (and audiences). The present recording brings together Coste’s most important pedagogical contributions to the guitar: the miscellaneous pieces he wrote for his edition of the Complete Method for Guitar by Fernando Sor, and the publication, two decades later, of his own classic set of studies, Opus 38. All of these works were composed for a seven-string guitar, that is, a standard guitar with an additional bass tuned to D and occasionally to C, but are playable on a six-string guitar with minor retuning. The Introduction and Allegretto, in the keys of A minor and A major respectively, were taken from the Method of 1851. The latter is an exercise in thirds and sixths, with chromatic passing tone: Coste’s Twenty-Five Etudes, Op. 38, have never been out of print since they first appeared in around 1873. As much exercises in composition as they are technical studies, these pieces feature a harmonic sophistication unprecedented in guitar music except perhaps in the works of Sor; several of them are uncompromisingly polyphonic, sustaining three and even four moving voices. Nevertheless, Coste disguised his cidactic intents with plenty of attractive melodies, sparkling scale passages, and several brilliant cadenzas, creating one of the guitar repertory’s finest sets of concert études. Most were dedicated to a friend or pupil; No. 9, for example, was dedicated to Soffren Degen, the Danz whose collection of Coste manuscripts has become an invaluable resource to modern scholars studying this composer's music. Etude No. 25 was dedicated to Nikolai Makarov, the wealthy Russian nobleman and guitar aficionado who sponsored the Brussels Concours of 1856, a competition to which thirty-one guitar composers submitted sixty-four compositions. (Coste won second prize; the first prize was awarded to Mertz.) Etude No. 14 was an Andante extracted from an unpublished Fantaisie symphonique, and dedicated by the composer to his wife. ‘The remaining pieces on this recording were also first published in the Method of 1851. The Réverie Nocturne in D is an exercise in harmonies; the Preludio (No. 11) in G is an arpeggio exercise, and the lovely Andante (No. 14) in D features a melody in the bass, polyphony, and a dramatic cadenza. Preludio (No. 12) in Gis another piece featuring almost vocal polyphony, while Estudio (No. 13) in G minor sustains a pedal in the inner voice. Richard Long 8.554354Jeffrey McFadden Jeffrey McFadden is recognised as one of Canada’s finest young guitarists. Over the past years, concert engagements have taken him into Canada’s West, to Quebec, to the United States and throughout his native He has given world premieres of works by both jan and American composers and has been a ed performer at Canada’s major guitar festivals. In November 1992, he was awarded a top prize in the prestigious Guitar Foundation of America Competition held in New Orleans. He was also a prizewinner in the 1993 Great Lakes Guitar Competition held near Cleveland, Ohio. In addition to his activities as a solo guitarist, Jeffrey McFadden is frequently heard in chamber music settings, performing with Toronto's New Music Concerts Ensemble and smaller groups. He also performed in the premire of The Enchanted Forest, a music drama by Canada’s leading composer, rray Schafer. He has appeared both as chamber musician and soloist on CBC Radio. McFadden holds a Master degree from the University of Toronto, where died with Norbert Kraft. In addition to his 1g career he is active in teaching and publishing with teaching positions at McMaster University and at the Royal Conservatory of Music. Napoléon Coste (1805-1883) Guitar Works, Op. 38 Jeffery McFadden, guitar 3:07 1] Introduction and Allegretto Twenty-five Etudes No. 1 in A minor — Allegretto No. 2 in C major — Scherzando No. 3in D minor ~ Prelude No. 4 in D major — Andantino No. 5 in E major — Allegretto No. 6 in A major — Andantino No.7 in A minor ~ Agitato No. 8 in E minor — Scherzando No.9 in G major ~ Andantino No. 10 in D major — Allegretto No. 11 in G major No. 12 in C major - Prelude No. 13 in C major — Allegretto No. 14in A major — Andante No. 15 in D major - Moderato No. 16 in G minor ~ Allegretto 8.554354 2] iE (4) il el ira 9] (fi) (2) {3} i) No. 17 in C major — Moderato 1:50 (9 No. 18in A minor— Allegro 2:04 No. 19 in A major — Allegretto 3:23 No. 20 in D major — Allegretto 2:42 22 No. 21 in G major 2:40 23) No. 22 in A minor — Tarentelle 1:06 No. 23 in A major — Moderato 2:23 28) No. 24 in D minor ~ Andantino 3:45 No. 25 in B flat major - Cantabile 4nd 7] Réverie Nocturne 2:27 Etudes from Complete Method for Guitar by Fernando Sor: Preludio (No. 11) 0:31 Andante (No. 14) 2:49 BO) Preludio (No. 12) 0:33 Estudio (No. 13) 0:50 48.554354 Guitar Works Op. 38 COSTE NAXOS compact DIGITAL AUDIO. ggE id ap'paU®s0V\I0S [NeWI-9 ‘01LZE0S99-68-8H+ xe “AUBLUED ‘YOIUNW ‘HAWS GAW :q painguys) “pry feuoyeweu| HNH 0002 © ‘PIT leuoNeUeU| HNH 0002 © "paiigiyoud osip yoedwico siyj Jo BurAdoo pue Buyseopeos ‘soUBWLIOUed o1]Gnd pasuo\;neUN| ‘paAlesau SuORE|suE: ue S}x9} ‘sone ‘BuIpI090) PUNOS iy} Ul SIY 8.554354 Napoléon Playing STEREO COSTE Time DDD (1805-1883) 63:18 Guitar Works Vol. 4 Jeffrey McFadden, guitar {] Introduction & Allegretto 3:07 2)-2 25 Etudes, Op. 38 52:39 a —_ Réverie Nocturne 2:27 Etudes from Complete Method for Guitar by Fernando Sor: @@ © Preludio (No. 11) 0:31 @ Andante (No. 14) 2:49 Preludio (No. 12) 0:33 Estudio (No. 13) 0:50 Recorded at St. John Chrysostom Church, Newmarket, Canada, from Ist to 6th August, 1998, using 20-Bit Technology for high definition sound. Artistic and Production Co-ordinator: Norbert Kraft Producer and Digital Editor: Bonnie Silver Guitar: Manuel Contreras, Madrid Napoléon Coste was a gifted guitarist who established himself as a teacher while still a teenager, He moved to Paris, where his brilliant technique placed him among the great guitarists of his generation, though injury to his arm cut short his performing career. His Twenty-five Etudes are one of the guitar repertory’s finest set of concert studies, notable for their attractive melodies and brilliant cadenzas, The last four pieces on this recording were written to illustrate Coste’s publication, the Complete Method for Guitar hy Fernando Sor, ‘They give instant pleasure, yet provide ample scope for performers to display their technique. www. hnh.com Cover Painting: Place d’Anvers, Paris, 1880 by Federigo Oddi, Italy) (Bridgeman Art Library, London) Zandomeneghi (1841-1917) (Galleria d’ Arte Moderna, Ricci, b | | 2 SOXVN ALSOD Se ‘dO sy10A, eM pSErss’s