Miguel Llobet

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Miguel Llobet 1878-1938
by Heidi Schmidt, Director HHGF

Miguel Llobet (1878-1938) is one of the most important guitar virtuosi at the beginning of the 20th century. At the age of eleven, being impressed by a concert of the blind

Francisco Tàrrega

Spanish guitarist Antonio Jimenez Manjòn (1866-1919), this artistically highly talented boy decided to dedicate his life to the guitar. This is all the more astonishing, because he came from Catalonia, and the guitar didn´t play any special role in the musical tradition there.
His teacher Magin Alegre, who took him along to that concert, patronized him for the first three years. At the age of fourteen, he continued his studies at the Municipal Music Conservatory in Barcelona, Escuela Municipal de Mùsica, with Francisco Tàrrega. This meeting of teacher and student may well be called a magic moment within the emerging guitarist history. Miguel Llobet was the best and most important student of Francisco Tàrrega (1852-1909), who manifested his name and importance for the guitar worldwide.

Miguel Llobet

Miguel Llobet started playing concerts at the age of twenty. He met with great succeess, first in Spain, among others for the Royal Family, then in Europe, South America, the United States, Russia and Africa and was one of the very first to establish the concert guitar as a solo instrument worldwide. His success originated in his virtuosity, his special feeling for the instrument and the music that he made sound like being written for the guitar.

Hermann Hauser I

Headlines like these: Magician..., artistic perfection..., amazing technique..., Virtuoso of great format..., remarkable musicality... were his travelling companions.

But in the 19th century, the classic guitar had another important protagonist, Antonio de Torres Jurado (1817-1892), luthier for violins and guitars. On his tours Miguel Llobet played a FE 09 and a FE 013. His meeting with the luthier Herrmann Hauser I, which took place within the scope of concerts he played as a result of invitations by the Guitaristic Movement Munich, also influenced the development of guitar manufacturing in Germany, especially in Munich.

Miguel Llobet, Transcription

It was Miguel Llobet who was one of the first who made electric recordings of a classic guitar. There are some 100 publications, compositions and transcriptions. He was a teacher and educator, following Tàrregas´ example.

Miguel Llobet, the greatest living guitar virtuoso at that time, was a frequent visitor at the house of her parents. With his pure feeling for style and his great technique, he gave her the best he could give to help develop her unique musicality..
Edition Hladky, Biography Luise Walker, 1962.

Wolf Moser calls Miguel Llobet:... the forgotten guitar teacher of Germany.

March 31, 2005