Johan Löfving performs Les Soirées d’Auteuil Op.23 by Napoléon Coste (1805-1883) via Siccas Guitars and their great YouTube channel. Great to see this video of Löfving after doing a review of his amazing new album last week. I don’t know the works of Coste very intimately but this is a particularly nice two movement work with a Serenade followed by an exciting Scherzo at 4 minutes in.
Coste has a very orchestral quality to his writing, sometimes containing a spaciousness not common to guitar but it’s often contrasted with thick and full writing and some intense virtuosity. As I mentioned in the review post last week, Löfving’s large dynamic range and constants between beautifully phrased melodic sections and extroverted explosions make him perfectly suited to this music and one of my favourite players of recent times.
