Unexpected Pleasures: The Whole Guitarist

When I was doing some research on Kazuhito Yamashita for the post I titled, Kazuhito Yamashita: Undeniably The Greatest Classical Guitarist Ever, I ran across the site of Australian guitar multi-stylist Peter Inglis, The Whole Guitarist. Peter had a great article about Mr. Yamashita, which promped me to write him a letter.

This was six months ago, so I had basically forgotten about it, but yesterday Peter answered and asked if he could add my letter to his site. What a cool guy! I said yes, of course, and so here it is.

The female guitarist I was trying to think of in my letter to Peter, who plays the Kazuhito Yamashita transcription of Pictures at an Exhibition, was Galina Vale, of course.

I couldn't find her playing Pictures, but here she is playing the Tarantella by Rossini.



Notice how small she makes the guitar look? I'm guessing she's nearly six feet tall. Her hands appear to be about the same size as mine, and I'm 6'2"! I know it's un-PC to say this, but many female guitarists - I'm a bit reticent to say this, but it's the truth - well, they play like girls. Not that there's anything wrong with that, of course: I enjoy hearing pieces played from a feminine perspective. Point is, Galina does not have that feature in her playing: I've never heard a woman play with such bravura before. Yeah, I love her.



Sweet.