Patrik Kleemola Plays Sor

Finnish guitarist Patrik Kleemola performs a concert of 13 guitar miniatures, a Soirée by Fernando Sor (1778 – 1839) played on an original René Lacote from 1839. This comes via Kleemola’s YouTube channel. Beautiful performances by Kleemola on a period guitar featuring a number of excellent works accessible to students and pros alike. As he mentions:

These pieces were published in Paris during the last period of Sor in the French capital (1827-1839). As an encore, the program finishes with Leçon Op. 60 No. 25 which is the very last piece for solo guitar Sor ever published.

Fernando Sor and René Lacote both lived in Paris during the first decades of the 19th century, the former being the most celebrated guitarist while the latter was considered as the most valued luthier of the period. In the Methodé pour la guitare (1830) Sor favours Lacote over other luthiers in Paris at the time. During the last years of Sor’s life the guitarist lived just about 600 metres from the Lacote’s workshop which located at the Rue de Louvois in Paris. Sor surely was a regular visitor at the workshop.

The guitar heard in the video, now in my personal collection, is one of the very few surviving instruments by Lacote that has survived in its fully original condition, now for nearly 200 years. Dr. James Westbrook, a leading expert on the history of 19th century guitar making, has described this instrument as “a very special guitar, one of Lacote’s finest”. In 1839, the year Lacote build this instrument, Fernando Sor died in Paris. “Soirée Sor” celebrates the friendship of these two masters.
Kleemola’s YouTube

Programme