24 Août

On the 24th August 1999 the legendary guitarist Alexandre Lagoya passed away having reached the age of 70. He was most renowned as one half of what has been called the greatest guitar duo ever to exist and together with his wife Ida Presti, the duo gave around 2000 concerts and left a legacy of superb recordings to remember them by. This new recording by the French guitarist Nelly Decamp pays tribute to the great man through her emotive four-movement composition 24 Août and as a further mark of respect has named the CD after this work. Through its seven-minute duration, this piece covers a wide range of emotions, from despair to joyfulness but saves the icing on the cake until last with a beautiful crafted, melodie work written in the tremolo style.
As well as performing solo on classical and electric guitars, Decamp is joined on several tracks by fellow musicians Keyvan Chemirani on percussion and Jean-Pascal Quilès on guitars and the effect when performing as a trio could be best described as one of «jazz-fusion«. Decamp's compositions cross many musical perimeters and each track on this enjoyable recording has something attractive and pleasurable to offer.
Aside from the aforementioned Lagoya tribute piece, highlights include a superb and stylish rumba and a set of variations based upon a rather «dark« but brief theme.
I can find much to admire in not only Decamp's excellent performances of her original works but also in the compositions themselves, which at times, are quite exceptional. This is the first time I can recollect hearing Nelly Decamp's works and I must say I was bowled over by them. Altogether a very nice and most welcome addition to the evergrowing repertoire for guitar.
Steve Marsh in Classical Guitar Magazine

Here is a piece written in memory of Alexandre Lagoya, who died on 24th of August 1999. Divided into four brief movements, it begins with heavy, funereal chords with some achingly chromatic solo lines interwoven amongst them, Subtitled with the date of his actual funeral one gets a vivid picture of what Decamp is trying to achieve here, This brief but telling opening is followed swiftly by Les Jardins de Cimiex where the composer had her first lesson with the great man. One can guess that the first piece she played him was Villa-Lobos' Prelude No 4, as a subtle variant of its main theme opens this section, Then an arpeggiated section marked fluide leads into a climactic group of widely spread chords before briefly pausing for a moment on a reflective passage with a still centre to it. This however doesn't last long but in turn leads back to a semiquaver variant of one of the main opening ideas. A return to the fluide section brings about a coda based around the still section, ending on an enigmatic E major first inversion. Rue de Madrid follows, a reference to the Paris Music Conservatory, where humour and laughter are the basic themes. A tricky rising semiquaver idea leads to consecutive 9th chords and then to a section replete with off-beat accents and some heavy chordal work, It is quite difficult at this point and players would have to have a full command of the fingerboard as there is little let up, even when an apparent Più lento offers no real chance of relief, written as it is in sextuplet semiquavers throughout. After a lightningly fast run down to bottom F#, a brief return to the opening idea leads the work into its final section, Bis, and being a tremolo movement, is a homage to Lagoya's favourite Recuerdos de la Alhambra.
This is a very rewarding work, and is certainly never less than interesting throughout. This is a fine example of the «Hommage« genre and as such is worthy of any player's attention providing he has at least a moderately advanced technique.
Chris Dumigan (Classical Guitar)