Segovia doesn’t even let the student finish a piece before jumping in. Way different from a typical masterclasses today, this is more like a very intense, one-off coaching session. The video below is only the first part of this performers time with Segovia, but the rest is on youtube as well: part 2, part 3, and part 4.
The next video is Michael Lorimer performing Albeniz for Segovia. Again, this is only the first part: Michael Lorimer and Segovia (part 2).
Here Segovia teaches the Castelnuovo Tedesco Tarantella.
For those of you interested, this entire 1965 masterclass is on youtube. Some of the names that pop up as students are people that became prominent guitarists later on: Michael Lorimer (see above) and Oscar Ghiglia.
Michael Chapdelaine is very well known for his Segovia masterclass experience because Chapdelaine got kicked out. The other side of the story that never gets told is that Segovia and Chapdelaine got along fine during other parts of the 1986 USC masterclass.
Any other Segovia masterclass videos on youtube? Which ones are you favorites?
As I understand it, Chapdelain was dismissed from one particular session, not the entire class. The problem was that he chose to play a transcription done by Segovia (Albeniz’ Mallorca I think) and then decided to redo much of the fingering. Segovia’s simple question was why don’t you create your own transcription instead of using mine? Fair enough in my opinion. Of course Segovia might seem a bit eccentric by today’s standards but remember that you are talking about an artist who was arguably one of the top 5 or 10 performers of the whole 20th century!
I think it’s also interesting to note that in your interview of Chapdelain he suggested that guitarists would do well to play more like Segovia did!
I think it’s also important to point out that many of the participants in the classes not only went on to become great performers but also highly influential teachers. Ghiglia taught in Aspen during the summer for many years and many of his students have gone on to be highly successful performers and teachers (Fisk and Isban to name a couple).
There are some great videos of Segovia giving interviews, talking about his early career and getting his first concert guitar from Ramirez. Back then, it sounded like life was adventerous and care free for him. It would be great for more guitarists to embrace that kind of spirit.