{"id":11895,"date":"2019-01-08T16:28:51","date_gmt":"2019-01-09T00:28:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/?p=11895"},"modified":"2019-01-08T16:29:53","modified_gmt":"2019-01-09T00:29:53","slug":"blair-j-s-10-favorite-classical-guitar-albums-of-2018","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/blair-j-s-10-favorite-classical-guitar-albums-of-2018\/","title":{"rendered":"Drumroll, Please: Blair J.&#8217;s 10 Favorite Classical Guitar Albums of 2018"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Sorry, it&#8217;s taken me a while to get to this!<\/p>\n<p>The usual caveats apply: I always say &#8220;favorites&#8221; rather than &#8220;best&#8221; because it&#8217;s all so subjective. We all have our own prejudices (good and bad) and inclinations, and things that move us and things that don&#8217;t. These are albums that really grabbed me, and of course there are many others that <em>could<\/em> have made the list. A few of these came out in 2017, but I didn&#8217;t get around to listening to them or reviewing them until 2018. They are presented here in alphabetical order by artist, and include links to the online reviews I wrote of them (in all but one case). Those reviews also include video or audio links, plus purchasing and streaming info.\u00a0\u2014<em>Blair Jackson<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/spanish-magic-recent-albums-from-jorge-caballero-and-kazu-suwa\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Alb\u00e9niz, Jorge Caballero<\/strong><\/a> (GuitarCoop)<em>\u2014<\/em>Imaginative arrangements and beautiful, virtuosic playing of both familiar and less-known Alb\u00e9niz works, including a few normally played on two guitars.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/recent-album-releases-george-sakellariou-guitar-duo-piera-dadomo-duo-canella-dubes\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong><em>Colori della Toscana<\/em>, Duo Piera Dadoma &amp; Vincenzo Torricella<\/strong><\/a><strong>\u00a0<\/strong>(Christophorus)\u2014Italian duo&#8217;s evocative &#8220;Colors of Tuscany&#8221; traverses centuries with pieces by Boccherini, Puccini, Castelnuovo-Tedesco, and Gilardino.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/recent-album-releases-celil-refik-kaya-duo-tandem-and-aloysius-leeson\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong><em>Watching the World Go By<\/em>, Duo Tandem<\/strong><\/a> (Duotandem.com)\u2014Unusual but throughly compelling fusion of Turkish\/mediterranean music, American blues, and other influences from guitarists\u00a0Mark Anderson and Necati Emirzade.<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/recent-album-releases-celil-refik-kaya-duo-tandem-and-aloysius-leeson\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em>Guitar Music of Carlo Domeniconi<\/em>, Celil Refik Kaya<\/a><\/strong> (Naxos)\u2014<em>Koyunbaba<\/em> and <em>Don Quijote<\/em> suites and so much more in an impressive Domeniconi showcase.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/recent-albums-a-mixed-recital-by-tengyue-zhang-creative-arrangements-from-rossini-hayward-and-petri-kumela-plays-sor\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong><em>Solo Sor<\/em>, Petri Kumela<\/strong> <\/a>(Tempus Clasico)\u2014Wondrous and varied Sor program played on an\u00a01826 Ren\u00e9 Lac\u00f4te guitar. Splendid!<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/recent-album-releases-george-sakellariou-guitar-duo-piera-dadomo-duo-canella-dubes\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong><em>The Sound of Torres<\/em>, George Sakellariou<\/strong> <\/a>(GSI) Accomplished Greek guitarist expertly employs a pair of historic Torres guitars to exquisitely render pieces ranging from Bach to Satie to Ponce to the Rolling Stones.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/recent-albums-from-trio-alborada-rody-van-gemert-and-sylvie-proulx\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong><em>Diabolus in Cithara<\/em>, Trio Alborada<\/strong><\/a> (Triton)\u2014French guitar trio&#8217;s magical all-French outing includes Bizet, Dyens, Debussy,\u00a0Saint-Sa\u00ebns, and others.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_11929\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-11929\" style=\"width: 650px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11929\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/Trio-alborada.jpg?resize=650%2C350\" alt=\"\" width=\"650\" height=\"350\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/Trio-alborada.jpg?w=650&amp;ssl=1 650w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/Trio-alborada.jpg?resize=300%2C162&amp;ssl=1 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 650px) 100vw, 650px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-11929\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">France&#8217;s Trio Alborada<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/guitarcoop.com.br\/en\/fabio-zanon\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong><em>Americas<\/em>, Fabio Zanon<\/strong><\/a> (GuitarCoop)\u2014My online review will be appearing very soon, so there is no link to that yet; just a link to the GuitarCoop site. But it&#8217;s a <em>tremendous<\/em> disc from beginning to end, as the Brazilian maestro presents a program of 22 mostly short pieces by composers from Latin and South America (as well as one from the U.S.), including &#8220;names&#8221; such as Barrios, Ponce, Bellinati, Lauro,\u00a0and Gardel; but also equally great numbers from writers who are not as famous outside that region. Not to be missed! (Here&#8217;s a link to a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=Vs_k5vd_Fuw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">YouTube video<\/a> of a Gentil Monta\u00f1a number.)<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/recent-album-releases-the-secrets-of-the-gypsy-guitar-andrew-mcevoy-and-alan-rinehart\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em>The Secrets of the Gypsy Guitar<\/em>, Zingaresca Duo<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>(IARMAC)\u2014Guitarists Vadim Kolpakov and Oleg Timofeyev collaborate on thrilling and emotional Russian folk and Gypsy numbers.<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/recent-albums-a-mixed-recital-by-tengyue-zhang-creative-arrangements-from-rossini-hayward-and-petri-kumela-plays-sor\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em>Guitar Recital<\/em>, Tengyue Zhang<\/a><\/strong> (Naxos)\u20142017 GFA winner is assured and brilliant on debut featuring works by Scarlatti, Bach, Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Assad, and more.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sorry, it&#8217;s taken me a while to get to this! The usual caveats apply: I always say &#8220;favorites&#8221; rather than &#8220;best&#8221; because it&#8217;s all so subjective. We all have our own prejudices (good and bad) and inclinations, and things that move us and things that don&#8217;t. These are albums that really grabbed me, and of course there are many others that could have made the list. A few of these came out in 2017, but I didn&#8217;t get around to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":11928,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11895","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-stories"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/FabioZanon_600-1.jpg?fit=436%2C220&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11895","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11895"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11895\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11928"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11895"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11895"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11895"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}