References

Benoit Albert (see below) here plays Preludio para guitarra by Julian Arcas on the very guitar which inspired the article "In another Antonio's Shadow" (Antonio Carracedo, Madrid 1860; restored by me in 2023). Benoit recorded a good number of pieces on this very special guitar, all of which being highly remarkable in terms of musical intelligence and recording quality.

In this video on the early days of the six-string guitar Greek guitar and lute player Polivios showcases a guitar which I restored... well, a very long time ago. Although it bears a Guadagnini label, I attributed it to the Filano workshop (Naples 1785/90) back then - and luckily still stand by that attribution today. Not an easy guitar to play, Polivios is surprisingly comfortable with it - well done!    

In this video, dutch guitar player Izhar Elias presents his project "La Guitaromanie". One of the instruments used for this project (and played in this video) is the Enzensperger guitar that I restored around 2010... which some may recognize as being "G.35" in Stauffer & Co. I think this particular instrument fits Izhar's fine playing and repertoire choices very well.  

The excellent Austrian musician Pierre Pitzl playing one of my guitars after Koch. This guitar and a second one of the same type are also featured on some of his records (see below).

One wonderful gem by Valdambrini on the left, and a link to another piece by Corbetta below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1wnRN2zSI5w&list=RDmLa2uEL8_Wc&index=4

Gonzalo Manrique is one of the many former pupils of Prof. Brigitte Zaczek in Vienna, where he now teaches himself. He is not only an exceedingly nice chap, but also an exceptional musician.

Jean-Pierre Cuisinier teaches at the Conservatory of Quimper. A great chap and player, who happens to own the one and only Stauffer-copy I ever made. He handles it nicely, as the video opposite proves. Not sure of the shirt, though.

Contrary to my much esteemed collegues Bernhard Kresse and Jan Tulacek, I am not specialised in building copies of historical guitars. But I guess that I could easily be talked into making another one of these.

Benoit Albert, who teaches at the Toulouse Conservatory, has been a friend and challenging customer for a decade and a half now. Some of his solo and duo recordings were recorded on my guitars. One of them is called "Paysages hypothétiques", which is not only one of my favorite classical guitar records, but IMHO also one of the best sounding ones.

The video opposite is a more recent than the record in question, and features one of the very rare cedar-top guitars I made (because I do not much like that material).

Making this a "Benoit Albert-triptych", here's one last video with him - this time with his long-time accolyte, the formidable Randall Avers. Together, they are the Frères Méduses, aka the "Jellyfish Brothers" in Shaespeare's tongue (any question concerning the name should be adressed to the parties primarily concerned...).

A terrific duo. Both their records and live offerings are highly recommended. Some of the most original and dynamic stuff in the microcosm of the so-called classical guitar.

Same (not so) old Benoit Albert, together with the excellent French steel-string guitarist Christian Laborde, performing one of Benoit's original compositions. Interestingly, this one was originally recorded on classical guitars by the Frères Meduses (see the link below). Both versions work equally well, I think.

Also, one of my favorite guitars out of my own production, spruce-top this time.

Prof. Brigitte Zaczek's video presentation of our book Franz Schubert - 39 Lieder mit Gitarrenbegleitung... and there is music, too! Cornelia Horak (soprano) and Brigitte Zaczek (romantic guitar) live in concert at the Wiener Musikverein.

In case you already missed him, this is Benoît Albert again. In 2011, Benoît recorded a bonus-CD for the subscribers of Stauffer & Co., featuring four out of the sixty guitars presented in the book. Although there is a good number of guitars that were restored by collegues in the book, these four I restored. Benoît's playing and the quality of the recording really do these instruments justice.

Please note that the CD in question is not avalaible for sale.

The excerpt opposite presents a CD, which does not feature an instrument of mine. More importantly, it is the very first recording based on some of the arrangements from the manuscript of Franz von Schlechta, which Stefan Hackl and myself  published in 2014.

Also introducing yet another highly talented player: Alberto Mesirca.

One of the many, many videos recorded and shared by the most tireless guitar and lute enthousiast Valéry Sauvage.

Valéry is an amateur in the traditional, most noble sense of the term. And as it happens, his technique sits particularly well with early French six-string guitars, like this instrument by Rémy (Limoges, c.1810) - which I restored... well, it seems ages ago. It is quite rare, to hear the very nature of a guitar appear so distinctively.

Martin Hegel lives and teaches in Berlin. In 2015, he released his record "A Mozart Tribute", featuring some rare arrangements for solo guitar, as well as some very clever arrangements of his own.

It was recorded on a guitar made by Bernard Enzensperger (Vienna, c.1834), which I restored and which is also represented in our book Stauffer & Co..

This is a concert caption of the "Ensemble Adelaide", directed by Bruno Marlat. I restored one of the two Lacotes that appear here, but this is not mainly the reason to share it here. Bruno and his wife Catherine have been doing some of the most accurate and in-depth research on historical guitars, makers and repertoire. Unfortunately, Bruno passed away in december 2019. Sharing a performance by the ensemble he founded in the 1980s is meant as a tribute to him.

Top left: a poster by the Musée de la Lutherie et de l'Archèterie on the occasion of my presentation of the Coffe/Lacote guitar. Bottom left: a view of that very guitar inside the museum. Top right: another poster by the same museum on the occasion of their acquisition of a guitar by François Larousse. Bottom right: an ephemeral testimony (which is an "Insta" page...) of my second involvement in "L'Instant Lutherie" at the Lyon Conservatory.

If somebody deserves a little hats off here, it is indeed Brigitte Zaczek. Ever since we first met, she has been tirelessly supportive, just as she has always been with her students. When I first told her about my ludicrous idea of a book called Stauffer & Co., she paired me up with Stefan Hackl - and de facto kick-started the project. 

Hut ab, Frau B.!

While the link opposite has nothing to do with guitars, it has very much to do with Stauffer & Co.: Pascal Mougin is one of the book's co-authors and, of course, its photographer.

A large selection of his diverse, and deeply personal pictorial works is presented on his wonderful website.