Krishnasol Jimenez plays the Suite in G Major (1682) by de Visèe on the Sabionari Stradivarius guitar

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Comment by Roberto Domenichini on October 19, 2011 at 13:12

Thanks a lot Rob for your comment and forgive my english in case of errors. This is exactly what I hoped when I uploaded this video and the previous about Ugo Nastrucci’s performance on the Sabionari: collecting advices and opinions from experts on how to get the most out of this guitar in terms of sound, playing technique and choice of music as representative of the time and place where it was built. This was a forgotten guitar and when I started this project my dream was that this guitar could just play in a decent manner, but Sinnier de Ridder made the miracle and as you say, it sounds very nice indeed. Krishnasol who teaches at the Music Academie in Basel, made a fantastic work finding this nice Suite in G, choosing the tuning 392Hz and playing so nicely on a so long keyboard.  He says that this tuning is particularly suited to the guitar and I agree with him. The strings are all in gut. The guitar has a very low action and I think that the length of the neck helps a lot the execution of trills. Keep in mind that this video has been recorded while he was studying this program, I simply asked his permission to publish it. I’m very open to hear your suggestions about the use of strumming in a Suite like this.

Comment by Rob MacKillop on October 19, 2011 at 10:26

Well, there are a number of things to comment on. Firstly, what a beautiful suite by De Visee. It is the first video of it I have heard. The guitar sounds very nice indeed. I love the double trill in the Sarabande! But, why does Krishnasol not do any strumming? It is a very lute-oriented interpretation, complete with thumb-inside technique. Is that nylgut strings? Seems a shame to do all the work on restoration of the guitar, only to play it in a non appropriate way. Sorry if this seems harsh, because clearly Krishnasol is a very good player and musician. Let's hear the guitar as it was designed to be played. But thanks to everyone involved, including Krishnasol, as now we have something to enjoy and debate. Makes me want a 74cm guitar...and it reminds me of how much I love Robert de Visee's music on lute, theorbo or guitar.

Comment by Roberto Domenichini on October 19, 2011 at 9:46

This guitar has a 74 cm. long neck. The difficulty of playing on a such a long neck has been debated in the past. Some experts spoke about the fact that the guitar had been designed only for "Continuo" playing. This video is a demonstration that also "Solo Repertoire" fits perfectly to this guitar

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