Segovia once described Sor as “garrulous”, a label better suited to Giuliani, of whose more copious output he recorded very little. Both men produced plenty of ‘bread and butter’ music, to please their salon public and for the benefit of (mostly amateur) students, and in the latter area Sor was by far the more distinguished. His five sets of study pieces are still a part of the guitar student’s staple diet. Those of Op. 35 were published in two volumes as being tres faciles, probably for commercial reasons; only a few pieces in each book justify the full description, and many are far from facile. The Pieces de Societe, reminiscent in concept of Paganini’s Centone di sonate, speak agreeably of the salon. The display of natural harmonics in the March that ends No. 3 must have had them cheering (tastefully, of course) in the aisles. The 24 Exercises will be of interest to guitarists but even they are not recommended to play them at one sitting; the deja ecoute repetition of rhythmic and harmonic formulae becomes obtrusive. Indeed the disc as a whole is for student or archivally inclined guitarists, rather than others.
Novacek plays everything cleanly, with as much expressivity and flexibility as is proper to the music, and with an attractively rounded tone.'