Canadian guitarist Drew Henderson performs Les soirées d’Auteuil, Op.23 by Napoleon Coste (1805-1883). This comes via Henderson’s super excellent YouTube channel. Beautiful playing by Henderson with some elegant phrasing, pacing, and musical balance. Some exciting and zippy playing halfway through. I’ve never fully explored Coste’s works but this entices me to listen to more. Here’s what Henderson had to say via YouTube:
“Played on a 7-string Romantic guitar by Mark Usherovich. I’ve seen a few pieces in the core repertoire that use a low D and E, indicating a 7-string was used. The Elegy by Mertz is one that comes to mind. This guitar has a very interesting design, where you can place the 7th string above the neck (as a fretted string) or off the neck (which adds some length to the string and resonance). I really love the character of Romantic guitars, but decided to use nylon strings instead of the Nylgut (which I used in the Paganini video), because I felt there was more variety in colour. Enjoy!”
