Explore music by the man who put the classical guitar on the map

Francisco Tárrega wasn’t the first composer to write for the classical guitar, but he may well have been the most significant. Born in 1852 in the Spanish city of Villarreal, he took up the guitar because his father believed he could earn a living from music if needed. He did much more than that. Tárrega had a transformational effect on the guitar as a classical instrument, touring widely and writing more than 100 works for it, all with a conservative simplicity of style but with great elegance and craft. Aside from the melody that became a ubiquitous mobile phone ringtone, Tárrega’s most famous work remains “Recuerdos de la Alhambra”, a musical impression of the famous palace in Granada. It is just one of the works played here with great flair, including the highly regarded Preludes for guitar.