Concert Report – Paco de Lucia

The concert that I watched on the internet was a full concert that took place in Freiburg, Germany in 1987 and was presented by two of the best classic guitarists of all-time Francisco Sánchez Gómez better known as Paco de Lucia from Spain and John McLaughlin from England.

The music that they play is all classical music in its purity and between the submitted songs which were mostly songs composed by themselves some pieces belong to other famous artists such as Egberto Sigmonti and Chick Korea. Personally, I really liked very much this concert I, I think that the combination of these two guitarists is one of the best combinations of classical guitar artists. For example I have seen some other presentations of Paco de Lucia as soloist and other artists accompanying him but never had looked an artist accompanying Paco de Lucia so well as John McLauhlin that could show off and highlight both styles in one.

The guitars used for this concert, of course were the original wood classic guitar with nylon strings. The techniques used by Paco de Lucia were mostly finger style and the techniques of John were mostly arpeggios and rhythmic using the pick. The first piece of music which the concert began is called “Spain” by a worldwide known pianist Armando Anthony Corea or best well known as “Chick corea”. This is a piece of music a little long and very pretty. The majority of the song was only the finger style of Paco de Lucia and arpeggios and picking technique by John. Actually in this song John could show off more skills than Paco de Lucia.

The second musical piece is called “Chiquito” and it was created by Paco de Lucia, a song with a wonderful melody. This song has a rhythm that is always going up and down; starts slow and then begins to raise the rhythm faster and faster. A curious note in this song I saw, was the way that John guitar played his guitar, for example the movements for not losing the rhythm and time. The curious movement that John was doing consists on moving his right foot as doing circles, and then continued with the other foot giving small blows to the floor.

The third song is called “Florianópolis” and it was written by John McLaughlin. This is a very fast piece, since the beginning starts with a very fast solo touring all frets of the guitar. Paco de Lucia was doing arpeggios and finger style, while John was decorating the piece with his magnificent fast picking technique. . The end of the song went much faster and with a very peculiar rhythm, for example John while playing his guitar also gave a few blows on guitar to do or mark a few pauses several times and then kept playing the same melody. The fourth song is called “Caña de Azucar” written by Paco de Lucia. This song is a short piece but with a very fast melody. The techniques used are pretty much the same techniques used in the other songs.at the end of the song both artists speed up the melody and continued with just arpeggios until the end.

The fifth song is called “Frevo Rasgado” and was written by Egberto Gismonti, a very old Brazilian pianist and guitarist. Actually he is recognized as one of the most important contemporary composers in the world, encompassing different musical styles that pass from Brazilian popular music, jazz and classical music. This song sounds more like flamenco and has very hard and fast melodies. The techniques used were finger style, arpeggios and picking technique by John, also doing again blows on the guitar to decorate and mark small pauses in the song.

The sixth and last song performed is called “David” and written by John McLaughlin. This is a very relaxed and comfortable song. It starts very slow with light sounds and slow melodies, but as the song continues the melody starts to go faster and faster until the end that finishes with very fast melody.

In conclusion, I really liked al the performances from the beginning until the end. Without a doubt is one of the best duos of classical guitar I’ve ever seen because these two guitarists are recognized around the world as some of the best. The techniques of each artist fit perfectly to create some very exquisite and interesting melodies. Both artists did a great performance that night, and all the people were very amazed with their performance.