Fernando: Beethoven of the Guitar, Book I: Youth, Celebrity & War

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3 жыл бұрын

Fernando: Beethoven of the Guitar portrays the incredible life and legacy of Fernando Sor, the greatest guitarist of his era, and the first to elevate the guitar from the taverns of Spain to the concert halls of Europe.
Book I recounts Fernando’s enchanted childhood in Barcelona and Montserrat, his meteoric rise to fame in Madrid, his friendship with Goya, and his patriotic response to Napoleon’s invasion of Iberia. This is a preview of the full-length, one-hour video about Book I.
Available at Amazon
www.amazon.com/dp/195496806X
International acclaim for Fernando:
Beautifully written and researched . . . a fascinating account of the amazing life of Fernando Sor, the greatest virtuoso and composer in the history of music for guitar.
- Santiago del Rey, Editor and Translator, Barcelona
A magical and wondrous tale, and a treat for the senses, restoring Fernando Sor to his rightful position as a ‘son of Spain’ who took the guitar to unimaginable heights.
- Michèle de Gastyne, President, Musique Universelle Arc-en-Ciel, Paris
An act of love and an act of homage, this romantic historical novel reveals Marinoff as a spellbinding storyteller. The sheer range of reference is immense; a truly inspiring read.
- Colin Clarke, International Classical Music Critic, London
Fernando is a tour de force. So vivid is the style, Marinoff’s great love and affinity for Sor are evident throughout. Bravo on an engrossing account of this fascinating genius!
- Maestro Cesare Civetta, Founder and Music Director, Beethoven Festival Orchestra, New York
All classical guitarists know how important Sor was to their world, but this book goes far beyond . . . a most enjoyable and informative read for people from all walks of life.
- Peter McCutcheon, Honorary Professor of Classical Guitar, The University of Montreal
A delightful embroidering of a history, with a level of gusto that is unlikely to be equaled. Hats off to Marinoff for this astonishing book!
- Jan Narveson, Ph.D., O.C., President, Kitchener-Waterloo Chamber Music Society
A rare triumph that combines historical fiction with philosophical romance . . . a virtuoso performance, entwining music, mystery, and metaphysics in a gripping tale.
- Makarand Paranjape, Ph.D., Professor of English Literature, Jawaharlal Nehru University
Marinoff conveys the spirit, manners, and social conditions of a past age with realistic detail and fidelity, framed in beautiful prose . . . a welcome and exceptional gift.
- Juan Carlos Mercado, Ph.D., Dean of Interdisciplinary Studies at CWE, CUNY
Available at Amazon
www.amazon.com/dp/195496806X

Пікірлер: 15

@stephenjablonsky1941 3 жыл бұрын

Bravo compadre! I always love going back to school when the professor both elucidates and entertains.

@loumarinoff 3 жыл бұрын

Muchas gracias, mi amigo -- so glad you were "edutained"!

@ThaisChannel2023 3 жыл бұрын

Fascinating History.... hm..

@loumarinoff 3 жыл бұрын

Thanks, Thais ... more to come

@ronperowne3629 3 жыл бұрын

Music to History Compelling

@loumarinoff 3 жыл бұрын

Thanks, Ron, for your steadfast interest.

@davidbrendel9715 3 жыл бұрын

Once again, Lou Marinoff - the rare polymath and public philosopher of our time - has produced a tour de force. I enjoyed every minute of this while learning things I never knew. The musical, aesthetic qualities of this work are superb. Highly recommended!

@professorloumarinoff7937 3 жыл бұрын

Thanks so much, David, for your generous appreciation. I am so glad that you enjoyed it. Similar videos are forthcoming for Book Two and Book Three--stay tuned. Meanwhile you should have time to read Book One! It's better than the movie, IMHO :-)

@CarolYost 3 жыл бұрын

This was stupendous. I had not known anything about Fernando Sor, except for hearing his name mentioned every once in awhile. It's surprising since he was so important, and I care very much for many different kinds of music. I hadn't known much about this aspect of Napoleon's wars, and they certainly were a mess. It just shows you how ugly and unnecessary war is. The music and illustrations were very fine, and the quality of the video on KZfaq was excellent. Incidentally, "guerrilla" is supposed to be pronounced almost exactly like "gorilla," the English way, with our "l" sounds. The beauty and culture of Spain are treated lovingly here.

@loumarinoff 3 жыл бұрын

Thanks so much for your appreciation. Glad to have introduced you to Sor's early life and music. Book Two and Book Three, about his middle and late periods, are coming soon, accompanied by full-length videos like this one with much more of his music. Please stay tuned. Yes, the beauty and culture of Spain are enchanting.

@CarolYost 3 жыл бұрын

@@loumarinoff Lou, please make sure we know when the next installments are coming out. I don't know whether or not I'm still on Cesare's list.--Thanks. By the way, Napoleon's anniversary---an important one---came up recently, and Emanuel Macron, President of France, held a ceremony with lots of pomp and circumstance; he heard criticism because some people weren't sure Napoleon should be honored. I think President Macron said he was an important part of French history and had to be thought of in some way, at least.

@gtrmusic69 10 ай бұрын

This is a FANTASTIC series! Don't know if your three volume books read all the way through like the Amazon sample does, which if you read the Vol 1 sample reads like a story. I was hoping all three were biographical than story telling. Maybe I should get the first Vol and see if it's all like that. When I read a biography I prefer it to read like a biography not a story. That being said there are people who prefer it the other way around. But this video series is superb!!!

@loumarinoff 9 ай бұрын

Thanks so much for your appreciation of this video series! Like the books, creating it was a labor of love from start to finish. As concerns the books, and as the front covers say, they are "romantic historical fiction" and not "biography". Since you prefer biographies to "stories" (as you call them), you'd probably be disappointed by the books. The genre of "historical fiction" uses history as a backdrop to tell a fictionalized life story, whereas the genre of "biography" is a faithful history of someone's life. So please just enjoy the videos, which are definitely biographical in character.

@grahamhogg9362 2 жыл бұрын

How serendipitous! I´ve been playing his music since childhood and ended up in Spain doing a bit of amateur dramatics and thinking I´d like to do some sort of a play about this musical giant and "traitor" somewhat bemused that there are no monuments to him in Spain and only one street, on a new Malaga housing development. So, of late have started an experimental theatre course in Barcelona where Taoism plays its part in the school´s teaching. And just before I stumbled upon your book I got thinking "Where was Sor born?" In Barcelona, I mean. I fully intend to buy your books professor, but, just as a "spoiler" is it known in which street and at what number he was born? Would I be able to find some plaque attached to his birthplace? As a footnote, I´m not sure the Spanish are that interested in musical history. There is a plaque commemorating the birthplace of Luigi Bocherrini up a sidestreet in the cool but downtrodden Lavapies district. Most educated spaniards have heard of him (Italian by birth, Madrileño by adoption) but each time I drag some friend up that sidestreet to marvel at the sight, the reaction is "Yes, nice....fancy a beer!"

@loumarinoff 2 жыл бұрын

Thanks for your comments, Graham. Serendipitous indeed! The Fernando trilogy will give you ample material for a play. There is a church record of his baptism but (to my knowledge) no record of his exact address at birth, somewhere in Barcelona's "Dry Quarter." Alas that Spain does not emulate those bright blue disks of London, showing where so many great historical personages lived. We know Sor's later addresses in Paris and London, but some of these abodes are no longer standing -- swept away by urban renewals. There is a Calle Ferran in Barcelona, named in 1848, but I do not know which Ferran it is named for. And since a few years back there's an annual Fernando Sor Guitar Festival in Barcelona, so he has finally if posthumously received a well-deserved if long overdue "homecoming." I hope you enjoy the trilogy, and these associated videos, which reveal what a "superstar" Fernando became during his lifetime, and also why he had to leave his beloved homeland to fulfill his magnificent destiny.