亚力山大·拉戈雅(1929-1999)和艾达·普蕾斯蒂(1924-1967) 组成了迄今为止世界上最伟大的古典吉他二重奏。这不单单因为他们的技巧超群，而且由于他们细腻而有控制力的情感表达。他们从多种渠道为吉他改编了许多音乐，大多数源于著名的大键琴、小提琴及钢琴音乐作品。

　　到19岁为止（拉戈雅出生于埃及的亚历山大，同时具有意大利及希腊血统），拉戈雅已经在整个中东举办了大约500场次的音乐会。他于是决定移居到巴黎，继续向Jean Saudry学习，同时还向巴西作曲家维拉-罗伯士学习和声结构及对位法。

　　拉戈雅遇上了出生于法国的普蕾斯蒂——她已经居于名流，10岁就制作了她的第一张唱片——那是在他达到巴黎后不久，当时受邀在一场吉他社交音乐会上进行表演。（普里斯蒂曾是塞戈维亚的学生，他呢称她为艾达·普蕾斯蒂西摩）

　　在音乐会上，普蕾斯蒂公称，拉戈雅是她曾听到过的最好的吉他演奏家。不久他们结婚了，从1950年直到1967年她的去世，他们都专门地组成二重奏进行表演。在那个仍然把吉他作为民间乐器的音乐世界里，二重奏相当罕见。其他的大多数吉他演奏家发现要靠独奏谋生是很困难的。

　　为了满足演奏素材的需要，他们开始改编巴赫、斯卡拉蒂、德彪西、法雅、格拉那多斯及海顿的键盘作品（其中，有一首协奏曲命名的最初是为两把hurdy-gurdies[一种乐器，手风琴之类]而作），以及其他作曲家的试演作品。

　　塞戈维亚被他们在纽约首次登场的表演深深打动了，他马上给马里奥·卡斯特罗夫·特德斯科写信，要求他考虑一下写两把吉他的作品。结果，24首前奏曲及赋格作品出炉了。卡斯特罗夫还为他们写了一首双吉他协奏曲。

　　安德列·朱利维、皮雷·佩惕、托罗巴以及罗德里戈等人，也都为他们谱写作品。1952到1967年间，他们大约演奏了两千场音乐会。

　　很不幸，1967年，艾达·普蕾斯蒂在纽约因肺癌内出血而去世。亚历山大坚强地又挺过了32年，他自1960年起成为法国尼斯国际音乐学院的吉他教授，1969年成为巴黎国际音乐学校的吉他教授。1994年他从这些职位退休下来。1972年他又开始进行吉他独奏表演。

　　在那些俗丽的年代，媒体在浓墨重彩地书写人类纯粹体能方面的东西——运动呀、模特呀，等等。内心及精神上的东西常常只被轻描淡写。有段时间，成人之间的亲密行为还被最常认为是性方面的行为。在这种观点及其存在的可能性被证明是非常狭隘的以后，人们都拍手称快。

　　如果你倾听拉戈雅和普蕾斯蒂的任何演奏——不只是听到，而且是积极地参与进音乐中去——你会听到这种亲密接触的对话，作为第三者你首先会感到尴尬。很难相信这两个人能通过如此复杂的方式进行沟通。尤其在两人都是在演奏古典吉他的条件下，这更为特别。

　　吉他也许是由人的手制作、且由人的手去演奏的最精美的乐器了。贝多芬第一次听到吉他后，激动地说：“吉他真是一件乐器里的管弦乐队！”。例如，吉他确实是唯一能同时、同音高地演奏两个或更多个音符的乐器。

　　然而，老实地说，吉他是“一分钟去学习，一辈子去掌握”的乐器。除了构造、琴弦及调音等问题以外，最关键的问题是吉他不是用琴拔、乐弓或者锤子去演奏，而只使用手！

　　对琴弦的磨损或者是敲击上少于一毫米的误差，都会导致音高的变化。在一次总共有9个手指在同时干活的前提下，无价值的音符发生的几率大大提升。

　　即使是音乐会上节目单中大多数的独奏作品，也需要花极大的控制能力和平衡能力。对二重奏来说，这就更是复杂得恐怖了。我们大多数能弹一点吉他的人都只能对拉戈雅和普蕾斯蒂质朴干净的技巧瞠目结舌了。例如，在他们改编的大键琴作品中，两人必须演奏一个人才能正常演奏的东西。

　　在吉他上，他们用20个手指飞舞在琴颈、指板、声孔周围，并且每次都完美地着陆。有一次我在记录片看到了他们，看到他们演奏得如此轻而易举，我简直大吃一惊。艾达看上去好象只是在吉他前面毫不费力地上上下下挥动舞指，这首令人惊异的音乐好象并不是从任何地方传出来的。

　　有时我真想宣誓，在什么地方肯定还有另一把吉他，也许那里还有一个要点：他们的演奏产生了更多的一些东西，不是1+1=2；从他们的控制力、声音动态上的细微差别和精确性、泛音以及和声等，产生了相互影响之外的第三种声音。

　　这不是在每个二重奏中都会发生的。很多时候，一个人所听到的是两个人在同时一致地演奏同一段音乐；而不是真正地听到或感觉到另一个人在演奏其他的东西。

　　对两个人能够如同一个人演奏，这不仅是对人的能力及可能性的惊人证明，而且是对人的亲密无间的证明。你必须注意，这要花相当大的精神的；从他们的角度来看，他们是在如此开放而大方地袒露他们内心的自我及相互之间的爱意。

　　合二为一的工作、爱情及演奏，一致地表达精确的情感世界。这确实大声地证明了人类及其关系的可能性。

　　正是在这个精神意义上，我推荐他们的任何唱片及全部唱片。这里有他们演奏的好几张并不昂贵的CD：Belart, Nonesuch, Naxos等等。大多数CD都花费不超过10美元，但可给你一生的快乐。

　　我个人对这些唱片的挑选是：卡鲁里的G大调小夜曲（作品Op. 96, No. 3），德彪西的Claire de Lune，斯卡拉蒂的任何大健琴改编作品，格拉那多斯的Intermezzo and Danza Espanola（作品Op. 37 No. 2、Oriental）以及索尔的Premier Divertissement pour Deux Guitares（作品Op. 34, L'encouragement）。

　　然而，你不必太挑剔。听他们的任何唱片，他们将带给你充满热情和温情美丽的音乐旅程。你会以活力充沛、满怀更多思想及敏感情感的精神状态回到工作任务及焦虑繁多的现实世界。

原文：

In praise of classical guitarists Alexandre Lagoya and Ida Presti
By Tony Cornwell 17 February 2001

Alexandre Lagoya (1929-1999) and Ida Presti (1924-1967) formed the greatest classical guitar duet in the world to date. This was not simply due to their technical excellence, but their subtlety and force in emotional expression. They also transcribed music for the instrument from many sources, most notably the harpsichord, violin and piano.

By the time Lagoya—born in Alexandria, Egypt of Italian and Greek parentage—was 19, he had already given about 500 concerts throughout the Middle East. He decided to move to Paris and continue his studies with Jean Saudry, also studying harmony and counterpoint with Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos.

He met the French-born Presti—already a celebrity, having made her first recording at 10—soon after his arrival in Paris when he was invited to perform at a guitar society concert. (Presti had been a student of Segovia and he fondly called her Ida Prestissimo.)

At the concert Presti declared Lagoya the best guitarist she had ever heard. They soon married, and from 1950 until her death in 1967 performed exclusively as a duo. In a musical world that still regarded the guitar as a folk instrument, duos were comparatively rare. Most other guitarists were finding it hard to establish solo careers.

To meet their need for material they began transcribing keyboard works by Bach, Scarlatti, Debussy, Falla, Granados and Haydn—among them a concerto by the last-named originally written for two hurdy-gurdies—and commissioning works from other composers.

Segovia was so taken with their performance at their New York debut that he wrote to Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco asking him to consider writing for two guitars. The resultant 24 Preludes and Fugues became a staple piece. Castelnuovo-Tedesco also composed for them a Concerto for Two Guitars.

André Jolivet, Pierre Petit, Federico Moreno Torroba and Joaquin Rodrigo, amongst others, also wrote for them. Between 1952 and 1967 they played some two thousand concerts.

Tragically, in 1967, Ida Presti died in New York City of an internal hemorrhage resulting from cancer of the lung. Alexandre survived her by 32 years. He became professor of guitar at the International Academy of Music in Nice from 1960 and at the Paris National Conservatory in 1969. He retired from these positions in 1994. He began to perform solo again in 1972.

In these tawdry times where great emphasis is given by the media to celebration of the purely physical side of humanity—sport, models, etc.—questions of the mind and heart are often given short shrift. At a time when intimacy between adults is most often identified with the sexual act, it is refreshing and invigorating to hear proof of the narrowness of this view and the possibilities that exist.

If you listen to any of Lagoya-Presti's playing—not just hearing, but actively engaging with the music—you will hear conversations of such intimacy that one at first feels embarrassed at being privy to them. It is hard at times to believe that two people could communicate so intricately. Given that both are playing classical guitars makes it all the more extraordinary.

The instrument is perhaps the finest made by the hand of man for the hand of man to play. Beethoven, on hearing the guitar for the first time, was moved to say: “It is an orchestra in one instrument.” It is, for example, the only instrument on which can one can play two notes—or more—of the same pitch at the same time.

However, it is truly said of the instrument that it takes “a minute to learn, but a lifetime to master.” The problems of construction, strings and tunings aside, the critical issue is that the instrument is played not with plectrums, bows or hammers, but only by the hand.

Being less than a millimetre off either way in fretting or striking the strings will result in a variation from pitch. Given that there are up to nine fingers at work at any one time, the chances of a “bum” note are raised considerably.

It takes great control and coordination to play even most solo pieces of the concert repertoire. When we get to duos it becomes hellishly complicated. Most of us who play a bit can only gape and marvel at the pristine technique of Lagoya and Presti. For example, in their transcriptions of harpsichord pieces the pair have to play what one person would normally play.

There they are, with all 20 fingers flying around the neck, fret board and sound hole and landing perfectly every time. I saw them once in an old documentary. It was astonishing to see the ease with which they played. Ida seemed to be merely waving her hands up and down the front of the guitar without any effort. And this amazing music seems to be pouring out of nowhere.

At times I would have sworn there had to be another guitar somewhere, and perhaps there is a point in that: that something more is produced than merely 1 + 1 = 2; that from their control, nuance and precision in dynamics the resultant overtones and harmonics produce a third sound arising from the interplay.

This does not happen in every duet. More often than not what one hears is two people playing the same bit of music at the same time, coincidentally as it were; not genuinely listening to or feeling what the other is playing.

For two people to be able to play as one is an amazing demonstration of not only human capability and possibility, but of human intimacy. And one must note the considerable courage it took, on both their parts, to bare so openly and generously their innermost selves and love for each other.

To work, love and play as one; to express precise shadings of emotion in unity. It speaks volumes about the possibilities of human beings and their relationships.

It is in this spirit that I recommend any and all of their recordings. There are several inexpensive CDs of their playing available: Belart, Nonesuch, Naxos, and so on. Most cost less than $10 (Aus) and will give a lifetime of pleasure.

My personal picks for the tracks to look for would be: Ferdinando Carulli's Serenade in G Op. 96, No. 3. Claude Debussy's Claire de Lune, any of the Scarlatti harpsichord transcriptions, Enrique Granados's Intermezzo and Danza Espanola, Op. 37 No. 2, Oriental, and Fernando Sor's Premier Divertissement pour Deux Guitares, Op. 34, L'encouragement.

However, one shouldn't be too fussy. Listen to any of their recordings and they will take you on a musical journey of passionate and tender beauty. You will return to the tasks and worries of the world re-energised, more thoughtful and re-sensitised.

URL：http://www.wsws.org/articles/2001/feb2001/guit-f17_prn.shtml