Segovia was not the first to adapt works of Bach to the guitar, a distinction that belongs to Francisco Tárrega (1852-1909), on some of whose arrangements Segovia based his own.

It is important to understand that at the time when Segovia made these recordings, little of the relevant musicological research with which we are now familiar was common knowledge to performers; Segovia’s stylistic ‘peccadillos’ were shared to varying extents by most virtuosi, irrespective of instrument. BR>
I need not enumerate them since they spring to the ear of any informed listener today, but so too should the ecstatic love and almost religious awe with which Segovia approached the music of Bach – his performance of the Chaconne is a thing of majesty and his tempo is closer to those adopted by today’s Baroque-specialist violinists than those of most non-specialist virtuosi. I recall the words of a famous early-music specialist of our own time, regarding Wanda Landowska: ‘She was a genius – but of course we don’t do it that way now’. So it is with Segovia.

It was also common practice for guitarists to play ‘amputated’ movements from large works of Bach; Segovia did not record an entire Suite (BWV 1009) until the 1960s, though Agustín Barrios is said to have performed one in concert before the Second World War. Today’s guitarists rarely do otherwise.

The recordings have been well transferred, albeit with a few fuzzy moments, but the inlay booklet is woeful. The programme listing cheerfully describes some items as ‘for the lute’, and the purple-prosy annotation is no more than a routine encomium. Had a smaller type size been used there might have been space for some more worthwhile information and comment.