Website for Presti project
Welcome to the site for the project dedicated to Ida Presti and her music. This will contain information on how to get in touch with the artists and booking as well as descriptions of programmes, recordings, reviews etc. Here will be included media files with sound as well as high and low res photos for production purposes. The site is currently under construction and will thus be subject to changes throughout the coming period.
Stein-Erik Olsen
Ida Presti: World premiere recording
Ida Presti was admired by Django Reinhardt, and together with Alexander Lagoya she formed the foremost guitar duo of all times. This is the world premiere recording of Ida Presti's compositions, a truly momentous achievement by the guitarists Olivier Chassain and Stein-Erik Olsen.
The name of Ida Presti (1924–67) holds more than a touch of magic for guitar enthusiasts all over the world. With her stunning musicality, unsurpassed technique, and sensational art of improvisation, she was the princess of the guitar. She composed a number of works for her guitar duo with Lagoya. This music was not available until the French guitarist and Professor at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris, Olivier Chassain, in co-operation with Norwegian guitarist and Professor of the Grieg Academy, Stein-Erik Olsen, reconstructed these works for recording and publishing.
Recorded on the instruments of Presti/Lagoya
Olivier Chassain and Stein-Erik Olsen are both former students of Alexander Lagoya, and it is their painstaking work that made it possible to bring this music once again to the public. As an important extra bonus, Chassain and Olsen have been permitted to use the fantastic Bouchet guitars, built especially for Presti/Lagoya, for this recording. Musée de la Musique in Paris hosted the recording sessions.
Ida Presti - admiration
The photo above shows the front cover of the first recording in the project. The photo is made into such a great portrait, although the original shows that the capture was done with I.P. in the midst of a crowd of men watching (and listening) to her playing. Photographically, the turn of a pretty spontaniuosly captured snapshot into a beautiful "studio portrait" is of quite a mastery. The story of admiration, though, is easier interpreted in the original (photo right)