1966 Manuel Velazquez: 60-Year-Old American Masterpiece | Bach, Tárrega, Llobet & Malats | Demo

A rich program spanning four centuries of the classical guitar's finest repertoire, performed on a 1966 Manuel Velazquez — one of the most celebrated American-made classical guitars ever built. Please like and subscribe for more performances and demos of exceptional handmade instruments. A full description of this guitar is available at: www.millvalleyguitars.com Program: 0:00 Introduction 1:20 Capricho Árabe – Francisco Tárrega 5:50 Cançó del Lladre – arr. Miguel Llobet 8:10 Prelude, BWV 998 – J.S. Bach 9:50 Allemande, BWV 995 – J.S. Bach 12:55 Serenata Española – Joaquín Malats (arr. Francisco Tárrega) Manuel Velazquez (1917–2014) is one of the most important figures in the history of American guitar making — a luthier whose instruments were played by Andrés Segovia, Julian Bream, Pepe Romero, Rey de la Torre, and Ichiro Suzuki, and whose legacy very nearly single-handedly kept the tradition of European classical guitar construction alive in the United States through the 1940s and 1950s. Born the twelfth of thirteen children in Manatí, Puerto Rico, Velazquez built his first guitar as a teenager, learning woodcraft from his older brother Ofelio and the importance of wood from his father, a farmer. He moved to New York in 1941, working as a cabinetmaker in the federal shipyards before establishing his first workshop on Third Avenue in 1948. Through the 1940s and 1950s he built over a thousand handmade instruments, almost on his own, at a time when the classical guitar was still finding its American audience. The New York City Classical Guitar Society recognized him as the only luthier in the United States qualified to work on Torres and Hauser instruments — a remarkable distinction that speaks to the depth of his understanding of the tradition. The 1966 guitar heard here was built at a particularly significant moment. After a period of expanded production under company structures in New York and Puerto Rico, Velazquez returned to New York in 1965 and reverted to building entirely on his own — one luthier, one guitar at a time. The 1966 instrument is among the purest expressions of his solo craft: no staff, no production shortcuts, just Manuel Velazquez and the wood. These instruments are widely regarded by collectors and players as among his finest. The program is a beautifully varied demonstration of what this guitar can do across centuries of the finest repertoire ever written for the instrument. Capricho Árabe (Serenata) by Francisco Tárrega (1852–1909) opens the musical portion — one of the most beloved pieces in the classical guitar canon, composed around 1888 and evoking the Moorish world of southern Spain through melody, harmony, and a fluid, improvisatory quality that rewards the finest instruments. Cançó del Lladre (Song of the Thief), arranged by Miguel Llobet (1878–1938), follows — a hauntingly lyrical Catalan folk song that has been a part of the repertoire for over a century, in an arrangement by one of the great early 20th-century virtuosos and a devoted student of Tárrega. Two works by Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750) form the heart of the program. The Prelude from BWV 998 — the Prelude, Fugue and Allegro — is one of Bach's most pianistic and brilliant lute works, composed around 1735 and translating with extraordinary clarity to the modern classical guitar. The Allemande from BWV 995 — Bach's own transcription of his Cello Suite No. 5 — is a stately, deeply expressive two-voice movement whose architectural logic and emotional depth make it one of the finest demonstrations of what a great classical guitar can do with polyphonic writing. The set closes with Serenata Española by Joaquín Malats (1872–1912), in Francisco Tárrega's celebrated transcription — a piece whose Barcelona origins feel perfectly at home on a guitar whose American story is itself woven from a deep reverence for the Spanish tradition. #classicalguitar #manuelvelazquez #americanluthier #vintageclassicalguitar #newyorkguitar #1966guitar #tarrega #caprichoarabe #miguellobet #cancoDeLladre #bach #bwv998 #bwv995 #malats #serenataespanola #classicalguitarperformance #millvalleyguitars #nylonstringguitar #handmadeguitar #davidtrevors