Sor: Fantaisie, Op. 58, etc.

“The [Nicholas Goluses] plays superlatively well.”

2010

“Sor's guitar music forms a body of work that's perhaps the most consistent in quality, and most manageable in quantity of any major guitar composer of the period. While he was born and died later than Beethoven Sor's language was closer to that of Mozart, barely on the edge of romanticism.
He was a polished, elegant composer, whose works have more quiet emotional content and expressiveness than those of his contemporaries, and though he often calls for technical virtuosity he doesn't lean too heavily on it. The Fantaisie, Op 58 isn't one of Sor's more riveting works. Goluses plays it in a somewhat matter-of-fact way. The Fantaisie élégiaque, arguably Sor's finest single work, elicits a very different response, a deeply sensitive and dignified reading in which the moments of silent grief are given the breathing- space they call for. Sor devoted five opus numbers to his 97 studies, of which Op 60 was the last. Each has a clear technical and/or musical purpose and even the simplest is lovingly crafted music – which is how Goluses treats it, with lots of care lavished on it.
The guitar of Sor's time differed from today's in construction, stringing and sound, and Sor played without using the right-hand nails.
Goluses uses a modern instrument and plays with nails, which inevitably leads to differences in sound and, to some extent, interpretation.
Accepting the differences, Goluses sets a benchmark for present-day guitarists.”