This song saved my sanity and started me playing guitar seriously. Until then I was just plucking out heavy metal cover tunes. Brings memories back, hearing it played so well!!

This piece needs to be played more often ,an excellent work by LLobet ,and Sor of course. A terrific young virtuoso.

You have some of the most flawless technique I've ever witnessed in a classical guitarist. There is nary a single missed note in any of your performances, no matter the speed or difficulty. Highly impressive.

Was fortunate enough to see him perform live. An amazing performance without a doubt.

Man this flawless...I watch this video every so often and it still gives me goose bumps!

nice job, Thomas. The greatest version I've ever heard

This piece needs to be played more often ,an excellent work by LLobet ,and Sor of course.

Great talent! Good song too, and beautifully done! Thanks!

i was studying under him a couple months ago. Phenomenal teacher. Changed my playing greatly.

excellent music and performance...!

I really had to clap in front of my monitor. Amazing rendition of a beautiful piece

amazing!

Wow!! Tremendous sir. That had everything I could wish for in ability. Superb. I will be paying to see you, and very soon. Cheers, Paul

Indeed a great performance; the theme is much older than Sor however

The best versión 👍🏻🇻🇪🇮🇹🇪🇸🇺🇸

Excelenteee!!!

Awesome!

fantastique !

Totally agree.

Increiblemente impresionante!! esta es una de Mis piezas favoritas y definitivamente eres de mis favoritos interpretandola :) mucho exito!!!

wonderfull

Viloteau is a very talented young artist .

excellent!

A terrific performance of this wonderful and sadly neglected work .Very sensitive playing ,Viloteau makes this look so easy.

Bravooooooo!!!!

the best commentary ever

Du grand thomas !!! merci EDDY du Quatuor CORDOBA

@guitartammy This guy is incredible ,the left hand only variation is amazing

Yeah, sorry I didn't see that question. But it is Sor's Folia variations. :)

Incredible. -J:

Seconding this.

Whoa!!! That was good!

exactly! i have books that have both tab and standard notation, they are great!....if someone wants to use only standard, go for it. If you really prefer tab, also cool. but no one should have to be judge by there methods, only the musical result.

Two handed tapping on classical guitar, Never thought I'd see the day.

hmmm, it says on the music that the penultimate mvt is for the left hand 'only', I wonder what made Mr. Viloteau include the Van Halen RH 'finger-tapping', awesome though it is...

Tablature has been around in different forms for the last 500 years. Its purpose then was the same as it is now: to communicate notation for a specific instrument in a more approachable way. Hundreds of years ago, those considered true musicians were not only required to read tablature and standard notation, but were also required to compose and even improvise proper counterpoint. Judging by the present discussion, our standards have obviously fallen.

This guy is beyond normal. Salut!!!

Another reason I can't stand the Grammy's and award shows like them...They praise so called artists that don't even write their own music as amazing artist...while guys like this guy go unheard of??? Good work man, I wish I had half your talent.

true statement.

yeah, ajaj hace tapping, like electric, incredible, performance,

@TheReaper3 real musicians work with everything

A very talented young virtuoso .Why is this beautiful music so neglected by other guitarists ?

It is from Sor op. 15a

Just wanted to add to the discussion on where the theme is from. Technically, the theme is not Sor's, as it is "la Folia", a Spanish folk tune, that has been used by countless composers through the centuries. The theme (arrangement of) and first variation are taken directly from Sor's set of variations on the theme, and so it has been called thus. By the way... AWESOME performance!!!

It's not a matter of dogmatism, just practicality. A good edition of sheet music gives you so much more than a straight tab, especially considering a good edition will have a good fingering chart.

IJOESU...!!! :O

Beautiful. Liobet's compositions and transcriptions are really well made, although most of them are not so easy to play for me.

he's producing the first note on each string by pulling the flat of his i finger across; help's to give more sustain and greater clarity.

@betterdayz2011 i think he is using it to get a more legato flow in that bit. Works very well in my opinion

@psychopathtoine yeah i think those are just the fingerings he chose. It's supposed to be a left hand only thing, but he probably just added tapping because he's a badass. It's a really cool idea imo. There's nothing that says it's wrong. The articulation of the notes doesn't really change and it probably makes it easier, not to mention really awesome.

@markusthefarkus I don't see what this has to do with confidence.. but ok.. If you can't find the sheet music, you should buy it. But if you have a good teacher, he will probably have the sheet music, or could get it quite easily.

What's with the right hand in the left hand only variation? Is he cutting off strings or using it for assistance?

Bravissimo ! 10 *s from Austria. best regards, wolfgang PS: is it a Smallman ?

Excellent playing ,very sensitive and also exciting and dynamic playing .This piece is superb abd sadly is neglected .

Since when did there get to be variations on the variations?! I've never heard of this or seen it anywhere. Who published it? I like it!

4:54 yippee!

what are you talking about? before i learn song, i listen to it 1000 times and then look at the tab, just to get the right notes. after this you practice and in the end you play it without anything by heart and it works pretty fine.

I'm just sad not a million ppl were at his concert. common ppl :(

@Mkamalid well spoken

3:32- :36 is the best part!

6:11 tapping on a classical guitar?

few people in auditorium... wondering how is THAT possible.

Yes, this is Smallman guitar...

I think only the theme and the first two variations are Sor's originals, everything else is Llobet's.

No, real musicians learn music. They learn how to read, how to comprehend theory, how to approach the instrument in a comprehensively interpretive and knowledgeable fashion, they dive into the intentions of the composer, and they have the humility for restricting their own interpretive means.

does anyone know which theme of Sor it s from?

3:22 WOW!, YOU'RE PRETTY GOOD!!!

The problem is, that if you learn from tabs, you just copy the fingering in both hands, in addiction how is it written. If you learn something from standard notation you can make your own free-will fingering, especially in left hand, which leads to better and often easier interpretation at the conclussion rather than if you would learn and work only with tabs.

is this a variation of folia de spagna?

2:14

quid du fa bécarre à 2:27

True but I guess in my own opinion I value this more than "just being able to sing". Many Pop stars have a talent to sing but other than that everything else is done for them. Their told how to dance what to wear ect. Millions of people can sing. Not everyone can write music or master an instrument.

well you know me...

you know that greecs inspired all culturs befor crist. he's playing setar music using guitar!

2:55 :)

Technically most classical musicians do the same thing - perform music written by someone else. But being a classical guitarist myself I totally get what you're saying though and I agree. It's sad though because we've moved out of an era where there are great classical composers. Sure we still have people composing but there's nothing significant about the writting and it's not contributing to the art in the way that Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Wagner, Tchaikovsky, Debussy, etc did.

300!!! Spartaaaaaa!!!!! to 8 dislikes! Excellent!!!!

Good luck playing any lute music as it's written then.

I compose something of my own, but to play pieces i read tab, only ocassionally sheet music, and man. i don't imitate perfomances. i make the dynamic myself and maybe even my own variations xp

accenti e/o tempi mi sembrano "strani" una variazioen su due... c'è qualcosa da verificare. La prima variazione poi, sempre se no si sbaglia di grosso, dovrebbe essere con i legati e non così... Nel complesso un buon suono. Ad majora.

6:11 ¡TRAMPOSO!

It's becasuse real musicians work with scores, ear and in a school, not with tabs...

@TheReaper3 Dont shit

Why not listen to it 10 times and learn to read standard notation instead? Seems simpler to me. If you did that 1000 times; you would still not play as well as this.

real musicians don't work with tabs? guess what they used for the vihuela and lute back in the day?

@TheReaper3 really? what if one said...real musicians learn only by ear...show a bit of flexibility...

They ought to be at least be able to read tabs... otherwise they really can't be THAT great of a musician.

Real musicians learn in any damn way if in the end they play it flawesly.

If you need tabs you will NOT be able to play this piece at all.

And what if I say that real musician has no meaning ?

If you want to be a real parrot of a musician. What if you want to compose something of your own? What if you want to do something other than imitate a performance?

Oh the ignorance..

OK.....now this a bit left field.. Why do great classical guitar playing men have a "geeky" look about them......when the top women players do not? Both sexes play equally as well. Yet one of them comes across much better in the performance.

@TheReaper3 oh, poor lutenists. they're not musicians!!

look of course a big part of formal classical training is learning how to read standard notation..everyone knows that, but the dogmatic view that a true musician doesn't use tab is just irrational.

Anybody who performs classical music NEEDS to be able to read music. It's not a subjective opinion, that's just how it is. It would be equivalent to being an author and not being able to read english. Ear training is also important, but learning by ear is more important in modern styles, because you lose so much of what can be done, and learning by ear is essentially just imitating somebody else. What about before recordings? Couldn't be done.