IIIIDA WillJE~1TII

W1SH YOU WERE HERE IDA P'RES1ITI 1924-1967

1

By ELEFTHERIA KOTZIA
TWE' TV-FTVE years ago, in the Grand Memorial Hosphal in Rochester, New York, Ida Presti" ,great gU~'1aris~and musician of genius" faced not an arudiel1lice but the laws of nature ..On April 24th 1967, at Lhe age of 43 and at tile height of her eareer, Ida Presti died from an in ~'Crna.1 11aemorrh age. She was bor.:m1 31 May ]924 ill Suresnes, ,a SUbU.ifb of en Paris, and baptised Yvetae MJolltargnol1 .. Her father.
ClaUide Monlagr1.on, W<!iS French; hertnorher, OlgaGracia La Pres'Li. a Sicilian. M. Monlagnol] thollght tlJial Ida Presti sounded better than Yvette Montagtron, so Yvette later adopted bet mother's aame. Heil rather Joved music, and him.slel.f of~ell played the acc{}rdion al

Sunday fiestas. Impressed by

<l

guiutrisl' .. A few weeks later, Yvette w~s born. M.

Montagne» bought himself a ,guitar and riddled about with it, in order toto be able LlO iutroduce i~ 10 his child later (incide~HaUy, he had similar embitions for his

1924, he returned! berne and a~:mo~Th'c,ed to hls wire. eigbl months pregnant, 'Our child will beceme a great

Segovia recital in Paris

0111

7 April

second child, a son. but l10thlng carne of it). P,Ot Ida to become a grest guitarist became a major ~mbili:QIl of M. Mo:n.tagnon. When she was sjxye.ars old, he began to teach her '011 a full~sjze instmcumenl, :mosHy '1llrrough Segovia'S recordiags. helping her to develop her natural ralent and 10 learn discipline. The w{),rk
began after school, when YOUmlg Ida would have aslesta Sind then her guit.ar practice and solfege. Her l]JnIl1SM~1

results. She played in pUlblk ~or tile .first time w,hell she
wss dghe and gave, her first full-lengtl) coneert at the age of tell, 011 28 Apr.il 1915 at tli:Je Sal.le Chopin-Pleyel Paris, Already 'special' - a prodigy, in fact - she !earnedl also to be a real professional. One day she was pJaying 'Ia marehande' (gm-eengrocer) with a knife, agalast her
danger
it/" Presti

musicality

and dedjca1ion

began to show miraculous

to be'!" hands were nOI headed, ~nd the illevitablc happened: Jda cut her Hilger .. Oil the following day ~he child had to play in i-I. concert Years [ater the traces of l1el disobedience cotlild still be seen, but she could also be heard to say '1 never had a childhood'.

fathel:'s will. Warnings ~ht this game might be of

L' spoque commented

the momeet

Or! her 'impecc·able style'; and! nine days ~dore" an the nth" A. Dandelot wrote thai he had •marvelled', And La PreSS!} s~id: 'Ida f'resti is !'!It

most pl'QdjgiQUS guitar virtaosc', Emilio Pujol called ~Cli 'a miracle of facility and grace,' i!"!m935; and Segovia himself si'.iidi,whee she was 13. '1 have' fll!1hing to reach
he!" .... she should ne~ accept tile advice of guitarist',

the youngest,

the most astonishlng

and the

Ida Prestiwas thl'l onlyartist younger than twelve yeats old ever to be invited to play <!lIthe concerts of the Societe des Ccncerts dlJ Ccnservatcire and Les Concerts Pasdeloup for two eonsecudve years. Her circle ofadimirei:s grew. She even played in a l'ilwn of the' time, 'La Petite Crn,ose~based on a romance by AljJBOllse Daadet, 011 the occasion of the centenary of tile dea(h of Paganuri, she was the performer who played Oil tbe composer's guitar (amd also ~h!eglIDit,<Jr of Berlioz) during a '~x,.mm.emQratioJ]J in hisbirthplace, Presti'S graceful !laleD.~was conquering everyone; sJle was a brilliant 'SLICCesS. After her debut CO;rlCl:,\ff, Bernard avoty wrote; 'AI tern she has a secure lecbniqrue ... her lull sound and the variety of her timbres are of the most begui.lmng," (Le Figaro, 10 May 1935). And t~e reviewer or AUK Eccutes: •....An inborn feel ing,. au extraordinary sense of rhyth.IIl1 (4 May 1935), 0.11 26 January 1938 ...'

any other

between 1934 <lind19.36, if represenrsa solid and varied re.pewWire for an international concert guilaris~ of that

included pie,ces, by Ba.oh. Broqua, Malats, Fortea, SOT, Mot,e,no Torroba, Paganiai and Albeniz,. Together with Lh,e fi,ve recording'!! she made on. 78s for Gra.Enophon

Her concert

programmes

between

1935 and 1938

appear-ed in ][938 ie 'RhyUi.fil> magszine, where A. P Sharpe, tOUll'llel'1ling on the ofl.en-discllssed 'pGSsibiHty that a better guItili:dst tban Segovia existed somewhere in Spain, armounced: 'That "better" guitarist is hereand she is achlld of only 14 years of ag'e To me, who neit:l1ei' met nor l1.eaxd Ida Presti live, true.
l

epoch, Am.article titled 'A Wonder Girl Guitarisr'

above statement

:marketing exaggeration, but am obvicus remark. To listen to her in the recordings of thaa period is, simply, a
]1

does not seem a. jojrrnalistic

Or'

pieces (certainly difficult [or those days) with such oued, virtuosity and. sensitivity, Never. Although there i some Segovian iaflnence in Ulle-ge
,early records, there: are some other remarkable ,thall'ac~.eris.tiC:5, too. At Iast 3J sease of style, !l respect for text and music. And what dignity in Bach! What flame and passion in the Spanish repertoire! These eharacteristies become stronger in later recordmgs, I was fortllnate in being able to listen to a recording

has a child of tna( age (about 13) played varkmseoncert

unique experience. Never i:n tile history of the ~tlitM

the young virtuoso, At 13 years of age Ida Presti was to become 'caef de famille'. Not ~ol'lg after hell' 1938
concert,

had to, look after a yorc:mg sister of three anda mother without a profes lQA. It was Ida's guitar that earned the

her father

died from a heart

attack,

and Ida

made later, ~Jl mIleearly 1950s in Morocco, when as some token of friendship she recorded Sevilla by Emilio Pujol. One eannot imagine a.oyliling more dark, more Moorish; from the :purmty and ahe digElity of her Bach, she has became a real Gypsy, taking our breath awa.y and making our hair stand OIl! end, Recuerdos de fa .AlhQmbm (Tarr,ega) is played at an incredible speed,
like a study; the middle section of AS.l!tdas is
800- fFee;.

bread and butter for the family. The years of war that. foUowed and tile period after, were: fllIH of difficulties ., It was a period that Ida. Presti did not Jike to talk about. In 1943, at the age; of 19,he married Henry Rigaud, A year later hell' daughter Elizabesh was born. In a a it was almost her second child. for, all these years and even when. her .r'Ilofller was married for the second time, her sister Gina had lived with her. Ida was now ~iving in the liouth oil' Prance, near Marseille ..She never stopped] playing, while tending to her liittle EWizabetb (possibly playing Pujol' G!l.ajira,.a fa.vourite at the time] and

purepating fol' concerts in the area.

bohemian nature,

though not 'romantic or personal'. Bachand AllMniz do n,ot sound alike, but the playing is natural, elastic, mach more classical, and in the service of the music. Her accdera,ndo a tempo; rubma, ritenuto the
colouring virtuosity - all h3rve a musical purpose, Technique and are only ill means of expression. One forgets theabsence of tring 'whistle'. the superb sonority and the phenomenal technique behind it, since i~ serves dl tile music. Wha't ~ left belongs to al] the human feellngs of our

The strict timetable imposed by her father in her childhood no longer applied to her daily routine. Ida
and liked to

had a rather

being; our subconscious comes to' life, aad weare overwhehned, These characteristics are found later, and in a more mature fomlc, in. the recordiags of the PrestiLagoya Duo, But an addilional role was destined for
12

favourite ball) in the early 19-05,. her friend the giaano insisted ,on her inging, Thi \ a: the fir , and the last time that Presti sang in public, a a true folk singer. H was song and the human voice that she gave, whea teaching, as the ideal example for p,illlrashtg. She also liked to improvise, attimes non-stop. Though she could . pend hour Improvising, she never put anything down on paper. John Duarte remembers thar when agoya, i.11

until two or three in the morning, for her friend. the gitanos, Wj~1n or without guit.ar, she loved 10 sing for her friends. ~rndl had ,a wonderful voice, a clear and pure coloratura. Mucm later, after a concert in the Salle Gaveau. Paris 'her late at night, sometime

play until

a Sor study. wall playing a contreehan: he had wriaren specially, she look (,Ii' guitarand started playing: an impr vied third guitar para, ternpo rapido'f 1L i only later, thanks to the care and attentjon of Alexandre Lagoya, that we have been able to' talk about Ida Presti the composer. She used DOwrite phrases or bars" leaving them allover the house, Later. maybe [he next day, there would be some more products of ncr irnagiaarion. It was because Lagoya was keeping the e 'fl ing' papers that she wa laterable to' put the things together and leave us orne spontaneous and lively duo and solo pieces, like L(I Hongroise, DOJl.se ,d"AviicJ. Espagne, VI£(mle Fantasque, Danse Rythmique, Six Emd' .' Emde dr~ Ma'til1, etc, She would a1' rnodestly: 'I am not a eompeser, just a guitarist wd'ling for my
instrument', Alldre Verdier, on the He l Louis in Paris, wa aimfort~rnL La guitar aficionados as visitiflg the nearby
I

After the Second World War, a visil to the home of

Cathedral of orre Dame. Verdier's h use wa the meeting place of Lcs Amis de la uitare. MallY. baing heard file reco d , went in the hope of meeting Ida Presti herself and hearing her play. H was there Iffila.t a new admirer went 10 meet her: Alexandre Lagoya, whom he: later married, and with wh In she Iormed the only a child prodigy possessing at enviable even by today's standards. In her h enrie 'The Female Mozart', as some IDL1Sic em-hies hailed her. never cea ed '10 astonish her audience Wilh her Fabulous pl<l1yi.ng and! her youthful c tuberance .: he nor only gave concert in b'g cerur es ! ut al 0 intr duced ~he gultar to small provincial towns, parliclillarly in . ranee ([OlUIl \~iLh J.M .... ) She ala I ured in lLaly. Holland, Germany, Morocco, Indone ia and ..ngland, nol only pl,3iyingher own trauseriptions (Bach. AIMnwz,c,ulaHi) Inn inrreducing composers never, .0)' at least very rarely. heard in the .. govian repertoire: Emilio Pujol. alia, J. Reus C(JIU, Pre ti, orelli, Tessarech. not [ rgetting her husband Alexandre Lagoya, some of whose pieces he played and recorded in addition to her own. Sbe wa l1Ie guit I'i l chosen for the first performance of t hc Aranjuez Concerto in France, broadcast live on radio.. Via the radio programme 'Noles LIT la Guitare'. he introduced the guitar to, a large following. Ida Prestiv s livin!} the: life ot a brilliant 010 virtue: 0.. However. in her very early thirties, after ~ler marriage with Alexandre L,agoyaafuJ the birth of m,er second child ylvain, thi outstanding pi yer decided to brill, to a han her career as a soloi 'I if! order to conunue in a duowith Alexandre lagoy,a. Tile sacrifiec wa made in the service of music. Her WOFk with Lagoya produced the greatest guitar duo in history, They created rhe rou nd ad, as for future duos to build 011. The Assad brothers have' aid that illHiaHy they based their repertoire 011 the repertcjre of PrestiLageya. As for the existing duos nowadays, the list is lOO long to be included in (hi, article). One of lffile ear.l)' Duoconcerts (001{ place at milemusic festival .of Aix-en-Provence, France, on 2.4 July 1956. It wa a tremendou success, and was brosdcas and heard iill other place . in We tern Europe. U was in that year tlulJJ Ida Presti decided to play exelusively in duo partnership with her hu band. They toured the world togethes,.' heir duo wa stil! far from being run developed when she 'll'agicany died. In ten years 0.1" so, 14 new and: modern coneertes were

Duo Presti-Lagoya.
Ida Presti was

an early truge• technique

n01

presented, not to memlen the numerous other new work for h 0 gluitars by Rodrigo, Pierre Petit. . n:dre Jolivet, Daniel Lesur, Moreno. TOHoba, Castejnuo Tedesco. Tomasi. Duarte, Jouvin Simonotetc. The Pr ' ti-Lagoya Duo conquered. the orld. introducing new playing technique and creating a large follo.wing ol' pupils and, of ceurse. fans. The press WJ!I'5 unanimous in It pral e: 'Remarkable" {Wa hingtori Po 1 • "Dynamic' (New York Time ).'A shock' (San Fr. nci co
hroniclo '. 'One of the marvels of the wcrld.' (Le W,l1clil • he' WBS ye LI ng.. Ida Presti did not like to teach. But after teaching in the chela antorum in Paris in the lase 195fls and, in 196U when she began to leach with her husband a~ 1111 Academic . 111llL'ermruLiollald' ln

Combat, Paris).

ice, she pro ed herself be an excellent teacher. II is touching moread her pupils' reactions, their expressions oj' remembrance, after the unbelievable fm!~ of her death, Ev nwhilc on tour, Presti would fine! tim to hear her pupils play, Her teaching was, according 10 one
source, imaginative; he knew intuitively what would
Of

Ie

would not work.·Fingering and phrasing were the first • spects of u piece La 'be considered. he exposed the sligbte l Imperfections and would invent technical exe reises spcataneousty', says A I ice A rtzt. . She conferred no,bility and grace upon the most trivial etude', wntes II: enry Dorigny, Pre ti \!I'8S DOl only admired but greatly 10 ed. Evangolo and Liza say 'the more one knew her, 'Ibe more Olll!:! loved and admired
her". and C ntinue., 'She was by nature tender and

generous, and be always tried to give courage and help others LO face difficulties', Impressed by Iter Timothy Walter says: 'Wi~h good reeson she would suggest

14

fingers, etc.), 011' herthere was no 'correct' way, Wby was she a great teacher? Aaron Skitri gives <me reason: 'Whel1ev-er she taught a gifted pupil with a musical personality, he would leave him to do as he liked only guiding him ali her in their own ideas.', Wonderful! And in advance of her time. Presti was not of "Ia vieine ecole'; c,opying Ie l'J'faUre did not make her smile. She was happy to assist and to guide. Ida Presti's unexpected deaib hocked music lovers and stunned the guitar world more deeply than any eaber eventin the history of [he instrument, The 50[11 o~ the Duo Presti-Lagoya had une pecH:dJy departed. 'Sbe made me understand that gui~ar could be mu ic, all music' (Pierre Petit, June 19',67). 'Or,ea.m, pure, marvellous artist' {Daniel USUI'. June 1'9( 1). 'Bven with the distance of time, Ida Presti is for many of us the greatest guitarist of this century' {Aka Ito, 1984).."For a very sheri time, we have been in the presence oir a
1

fingerings, iaterpreration, explaining why. She woullid accept any convincaig way, she was Dot dictatorial', She would not attempt to impose h r fameu 'fauaque, ill droite', bum.would simply explain it, together witll other ehsracteri tics of bel!' playing (trills, scales wj~b three

genius, and i1 is

during OUI lifetime' (John Duarte, June 1967). Alexandre Lagoya says: Sensitive emoalonal passionate, of eztreme peofoundaess, she w~s agenius. ever ill my existence has a guitar performer moved and impressed m to: Udl an extent. She was the mit! ic i~elf. I believe she was the best guitarist of our century. She was sommtlIing inexplicable". IfH;1xpJica.!bleas well JS the: Waty we have (orgoueD her, Of course, she was
modest and discr,eeL, and did not like the uperficial, the mundane. But if she were 10' come back, for just one minute" would she be 11apP'Yto see how quicldy we have

unlikely that we will meetanother

such

forgotten her? How maflY young pli2lyer have not even heard o~ her? How little has been written about her or dOlle tor bee! She gave her life [0 the guitar. I also believe that she wa the greatest gultarist of the cenil.ury..Of her 43 years, she spent 33 as a profe. sional guitarjst. Her ccmposiriona, as \!(ellas her solo recordings (apan from. the Oramophoo flIDdRCA solo recordings, there exist ~ours music he recorded solely for the radio}, should be the property of every music and guitar lover. The memory and 1.I11I~ work of an ertist can only remain

or

alive througb

those that are left behind.

Must we bury

her a second time? Ida Presti. was a pheacmenal musician, a I,egendary virtuoso, a generou , luvable wonilal1,a genius. 15 i~ possible tilla. I am wdting a homage to her? Certainly Dot 1 simply want to say: ''I wisih you. were here'. © 1992 ElefUieria Kotzia.