Alexandre Lagoya


Alexandre Lagoya was a French classical guitarist and composer. His early career included boxing and guitar, and as he cites on the sleeve of a 1981 Columbia album, his parents hoped he would outgrow his predilection for both.

Life and career

Lagoya was born on 29 June 1929 in Alexandria, Egypt, to a Greek father and an Italian mother. By 1955, when he married the French guitarist Ida Presti, his career had already begun. On the sleeve of his 1981 record with Columbia, Lagoya pays deep tribute to Presti and admits that after her premature death he was unable to play for years. He returned to the guitar as a teacher, tutoring among other famous guitarists the Canadian virtuoso Liona Boyd. In the early 1980s, aged 52, he burst back on the international scene with a record for Columbia and an international tour.
Lagoya played a variety of works for guitar, performing concerts and recording albums, often collaborating with Presti and also with other musicians. Lagoya was also a successful teacher. He taught at the Conservatoire de Paris and, in Canada, and developed a new method of hand positioning which he believed helped people learn to play the guitar better. He also added the use of the little finger to plucking and claimed to have invented a method for maximizing the sound coming from the classical guitar.
Concerning the right hand, Alexandre Lagoya preferred the technique of plucking from the right side of the nail, and he believed it gave a more powerful sound.
A number of composers wrote works for Lagoya and the Presti-Lagoya Duo, including:
  • Daniel Jean-Yves Lesur: Élégie.
  • Pierre Petit: Tarantelle ; Toccata.
  • André Jolivet: Sérénade pour deux guitares.
  • Joaquín Rodrigo: Tonadilla. Rodrigo finished another piece for two guitars, the Concierto Madrigal.
  • Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco: Sonatina Canonica pour deux guitares, Op. 196.
  • Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco: Les Guitares bien tempérées - 24 Préludes et fugues pour deux guitares, Op. 199.
  • Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco: Concerto pour deux guitares et orchestre, Op. 201.
  • Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco: Fuga elegiaca pour deux guitares, Op. postuma.
  • Joaquín Rodrigo: Triptico para guitarra.

    Selected compositions

Guitar solo
  • Six Études
  • Caprice
  • Rêverie
Transcriptions
  • Johann Sebastian Bach: Gavotte et musette , for 2 guitars
  • Johann Sebastian Bach: Gavotte , for solo guitar
  • Georg Friedrich Händel: Sarabande, for solo guitar
  • Domenico Scarlatti: Sonata, for 2 guitars
  • Georg Friederich Handel: Ciaccona, Fugue et Allegro , for 2 guitars
  • Johann Sebastian Bach: Preludi e fughe dal Clavicembalo ben temperato
  • Johann Sebastian Bach: Suites Inglesi e Francesi
  • Domenico Scarlatti: Six Sonatas
  • AA.VV.: 12 Baroque Masterpieces
  • Ida Presti: Œuvres originales pour deux guitares
  • Niccolò Paganini: Sonata Concertante
  • Franz Schubert: Sonata Arpeggione
  • Ludwig van Beethoven: ''Andante con varaizioni - Adagio - Sonatina''