Watch Ana Vidovic Play Isaac Albéniz’s “Asturias”!

From time to time, we post classical guitar videos on the website and Facebook page of our sister publication Acoustic Guitar (which is mainly, but not exclusively, devoted to steel-stringed guitars and the musicians who play them). This week, we shared this video with Acoustic Guitar’s readers/fans and it was very well-received, so we thought we should post it here, for Croatian guitarist Ana Vidovic‘s MANY fans in the classical guitar community!

Isaac Albéniz’s “Asturias” (also known as “Leyenda,” which was actually Albéniz’s title) is one of the most durable pieces in the classical guitar repertoire—even though the Spanish composer (1860–1909) wrote the piece for piano originally. The groundbreaking Spanish guitarist Francisco Tárrega (1852-1909) was among the first to write a transcription of the piece for guitar, but in the modern era it is the great Andrés Segovia’s transcription that truly popularized the work worldwide. It has been recorded countless times by classical guitarists, and rock fans might recognize that its hypnotic main riff was “borrowed” (uncredited) by Robbie Krieger of the Doors for the beginning of the song “Spanish Caravan,” from the group’s 1968 album Waiting for the Sun (one of my personal faves).    —Blair Jackson


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