You wrote: “I don’t think, however, that we should be slaves to some “master performance.” It’s okay to make different decisions. ”

I think that’s a very insightful and wise observation and I can nothing but fully agree with it!
I’m not asking you to copy Segovia. All I’m saying is: to hear some historically-informed “late-romantic spanish style”…

Here’s something to try out:

Do you have the sheetmusic of Manuel de Falla’s “Homenaje pour le tombeau de Debussy”?

***Please try and get the sheetmusic and play it, and find your interpretation of it.

After you’re happy with it – only then! – go ahead and listen to this:
http://www.fundacionjoseguillermocarrillo.com/sitio/audio/segovia/002-2-ESP-AS-0254-13-1793.mp3
This is Andres Segovia’s interpretation of the work.

-> I would be interesting to hear your thoughts, then…

This “experiment” basically happened to me and …
well…
…let me just say: I’ve new-found respect for Segovia in his knowledge, intuition and experience of interpreting late romantic spanish works.

Where do you get that “musical intuition, and experience” that you write about?

PS: You wrote “And because Segovia or Williams played something a certain way does not make it correct.”
-> I fully agree. Esp with Williams. If you play it like Williams, your missing the point! And Segovia’s technical-deficiency-rubato that occasionally pops up is also not good.

But in some pieces, Segovia’s performing has something special. All I’m saying is: don’t underestimate Segovia’s role in the performance of late-romantic Spanish repertoire.

I don’t think, however, that we should be slaves to some “master performance.” It’s okay to make different decisions. And because Segovia or Williams played something a certain way does not make it correct.

In other words:
To learn about Torroba, you cannot listen to Ana Vidovic, …

To learn about Bach you cannot listen to Narciso Yepes, Andres Segovia, …

To learn about Albeniz you cannot listen to Xuefei Yang, John Williams, …

To learn about Barrios, you cannot listen to David Russell, John Williams, …

To learn about Giuliani, you cannot listen to David Russell, John Williams, …

To learn about latin american music, you cannot listen to David Russell, John Williams, …

What about learning from expressive performers?

For example to learn Spanish late Romantic performance practice, who better to listen to than Segovia:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vzmcrm226fo

PS: Show me a better recording of Torroba’s Sonatina! Segovia’s interpretation is unsurpassed.

Here’s a presentation by Ricardo Iznaola:
Making Music: Is Musical Ability a ‘ gift’…or…

https://portfolio.du.edu/pc/port.detail?id=147183

What do you think?

In regards to playing what’s on the sheet music, I’m working on “Hymn 11″ by Pierre Bensusan right now. I played it with a really improvised feel, which is partially what he goes for live. But my teacher really put me to the task of learning the music AS IS, rhythm, phrasing, dynamics and all. Even after two lessons’ worth of it, I’m seeing a HUGE improvement in the way I play the song.

As for practicing relaxation, I’ve dedicated a significant amount of time to this in the past year or so. Before I started taking lessons, I had absolutely horrid technique – wrist against the guitar, plucking upwards from UNDER the string (no nails back then). A bout of wrist pain scared me enough to start dedicating myself to complete relaxation on the instrument. I still have a long way to go with the pressure I apply to the strings, but with the technique change and working on my posture, I sound like a completely different player – and that’s definitely for the better!

Great post. The little things need to be reiterated sometimes, even for experienced players.