Ida Presti

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Alexandre Lagoya and Ida Presti

Ida Presti (born May 31, 1924 in Suresnes , France as Yvette Ida Montagnon , † April 24, 1967 in Rochester , United States ) was a French guitarist and composer .

Life

Ida Presti first became acquainted with the classical guitar as a toddler when her father played the guitar for her to fall asleep. Her father began teaching her piano and guitar at the age of five, but soon she decided to play the guitar. Later she was trained by the guitarist and violin maker Mario Maccaferri , who also taught her harmony and music theory. She first appeared in public in 1932 at the age of eight. Two years later she was already giving concerts in Paris and was hailed by the press as the “female Mozart”.

In 1937 Presti was made an honorary member of the Les Amis de la Guitare in Paris. In the same year she made several recordings for the French record label HMV. In 1938 she became the first guitarist ever to be invited to perform at the Société des concerts du Conservatoire in Paris. Also in 1938 she appeared in a supporting role as guitarist in the French feature film Le petit Chose (directed by Maurice Cloche ). At the age of 16 she played Paganini's guitar at a memorial concert on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of his death.

After the Second World War initially interrupted Presti's career, it soon became internationally known after its end. In 1948 she played the Concierto de Aranjuez with the French national radio orchestra , this studio performance was broadcast on French radio and met with great enthusiasm. Presti then played the guitar concert with various orchestras in several European cities as well as in Tunis and Algiers in North Africa. In 1951 she appeared for the first time in London with a program that included works by Tárrega , Villa-Lobos , Miguel Llobet and Pujol and was critically acclaimed.

Despite her success, Presti gave up her solo career in the 1950s and instead formed a duo with guitarist Alexandre Lagoya . She met and fell in love with Lagoya in Paris in 1952 and married the following year. The two were the first world-famous classical guitar duo and gave over 2000 concerts until Presti's death. Presti died on April 24, 1967 in Rochester, preparing for a concert in New York, of an internal hemorrhage resulting from lung cancer. She was buried in the Cimetière comunal of Montmorency , Département Val-d'Oise . Her husband, Alexandre Lagoya, who died in 1999, was placed in bed with her.

In addition to her concert appearances, Presti also composed her own guitar pieces, which she did not, however, publish herself during her lifetime. In the 1960s she also taught guitar at the Academie Internationale in Nice .

Emilio Pujol described Ida Presti as a "miracle of talent and grace". The guitarist and music teacher John Duarte regarded her as the best female guitarist of the 20th century, whose combination of flawless but soulful playing, technical innovation and musical instinct remained unmatched.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Graham Wade: A Concise History of the Classic Guitar . Mel Bay Publications 2001, ISBN 078664978X , pp. 134-136 ( excerpt from Google book search)
  2. ^ Ernie Jackson: The Everything Guitar Book . Everything Books 2007, ISBN 9781598692501 , p. 153 ( excerpt from Google book search)
  3. ↑ Hannu Annala, Heiki Mätlik: Handbook of Guitar and Lute Composers . Mel Bay Publications 2008, ISBN 9780786658442 , p. 117 ( excerpt in Google book search)
  4. ^ Wade, p. 135 , p. 198
  5. ^ Eleftheria Kotzia: 40th anniversary of the passing of Ida Presti. Wish you were here: Ida Presti . TAR, April 24, 2007
  6. ↑ a b Eleftheria Kotzia: Wish you were here: Ida Presti (1924-1967) (PDF; 1.1 MB). Classical Guitar, May 1992
  7. ↑ The grave of Ida Presti and Alexandre Lagoya. In: knerger.de. Klaus Nerger, accessed October 8, 2018 .
  8. ^ Victor Coelho: The Cambridge Companion to the Guitar . Cambridge University Press 2003, ISBN 0521000408 , p. 190 ( excerpt from Google book search)
  9. ↑ Interview with John Duarte ( Memento from July 15, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) (video, 12 min .; WMV ; 6.5 MB) on the website Homage to Ida Presti (1924-1967) ( Memento from August 5, 2012 in Internet Archive )
personal data
SURNAME Presti, Ida
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Montagnon, Yvette Ida (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French guitarist and composer
DATE OF BIRTH May 31, 1924
PLACE OF BIRTH Suresnes
DATE OF DEATH April 24, 1967
Place of death Rochester (New York)