Taking Another Look at Ida Presti
"I have nothing to teach her. She should accept advice from no other guitarist."
Andrés Segovia
Published in "Guitar Review" by the New York Society of Classical Guitar
The modern classical guitarist will be well-acquainted with the standard selection of players chosen for technique and repertoire: Segovia, Tárrega, Giuliani, Carcassi, and Sor, among others– valid in their own right. However, I’ve found in my own position as a guitarist that the culture and history for the instrument gets stale, at times feeling one-dimensional and hitting a plateau. In my experience, the guitar instructor has always been a man, the pedagogy always established by the music and ideas of men. Despite the absolute breadth of ways in which the acoustic and electric guitars have been given such personality and diversity, the classical guitar has always been seen as a snapshot in a point in time; its development as an instrument having slowed down. This seems at odds with the numerous ways in which the traditional concert stringed instruments–violin, viola, cello, double bass, have continued to receive solid repertoire throughout the 20th and 21st centuries, on and off the classical stage. It’s an unfortunate case that seems to stem from different issues: its history of not being taken seriously as a concert instrument, the difficulties of composing for it, and the performance practice/pedagogy being slow to develop. As a result, it becomes rare for there to come a musician who can break down these barriers and give the classical guitar a fresh distinct voice. I was recently delighted to find this rare musician in Ida Presti, the French guitarist and composer who, despite having a career only spanning the mid-20th century, could very well represent just what the guitar community needs now to grow.
Ida Presti was born Yvette Montagnon in the western suburbs of Paris, France on May 31, 1924. Montagnon was first called Ida Presti by her father, who got “Presti” from her mother’s maiden name and preferred how it sounded. Displaying an aptitude for music, her father began giving her guitar lessons at a young age, and received additional instruction in music theory from Italian guitarist Mario Maccaferri. Presti seemingly had an intuitive and personal understanding of the guitar, quickly surpassing her father-- who happened to be the last instructor she ever had. In fact, she never needed another; she became widely known as a child prodigy, playing her first full-length concert at the age of ten, began making commercial recordings soon after, and played for Andrés Segovia at 13, who expressed that there was nothing that he could teach her. As a young teen, Presti was already at the beginning of a promising career. As a solo performer, Presti stood out for her distinct sound, the result of a technique that she developed individually, one of the most notable aspects of which is using the right side of the nail to pluck the strings, giving a stronger sound– most guitarists use the left side. She also played trills across multiple strings rather than fretting on one, as she found that it imitated the open string sound of the piano. She was widely recognized among her contemporaries, one of my favorite facts surrounding her impact is that Poulenc's only composition for the guitar, a Sarabande, was written for her. For video evidence of her solo virtuosity, look no further than this video of Presti playing Villa-Lobos’ Prelude No. 1:
Presti enjoyed a career as a solo performer that took her around the world. At the age of 28, she stopped performing as a solo artist after meeting and later marrying guitarist Alexandre Lagoya. They bonded over each other's abilities as guitarists, and even found that they had similar approaches to technique by completely different means. Thankfully, this wasn't a case of a husband shutting down his wife's career as a musician; they were able to take each other to new heights! Together, the Presti-Lagoya duo became one of the most successful guitar duos in history; the pair performed over 2,000 concerts, and actively composed pieces for two guitars.
Through the grainy footage available online, her virtuosity is recognizable, but it may strike the listener that the quality of this recording isn't great. In fact, it's difficult to find any good recordings of her playing, and even rarer to find video. How could one of the most celebrated guitarists of the 20th century, regarded as one of the best, be so poorly documented? Part of the answer may be due to the technological limitations of the time, but it's also worth mentioning that recordings of other artists exist that far surpass the quality of this one (taken before 1952). It may be starting to become obvious that Presti wasn't given the same recording opportunities as other musicians, due to her identity as a woman. It can't be understated nor estimated how much of a loss this has been to the guitar community. As a consequence, most of Presti's recordings don't demonstrate her command of the instrument in its full glory. Actually, the most regrettable repercussion from her music's inaccessibility in the past is how it has resulted in her being shelved in the present.
To me, it seems that Ida Presti was unfairly robbed of a more significant place in the modern guitar world. If students of the guitar today were more aware of her music, I have no doubt in my mind that she would be more commonly found on programs, and the idea of finding variations for technique would be more thoroughly explored. In my own future teaching and performing, I look forward to giving Presti her due credit, as I think she's just the type of artist and mindset that the classical guitar needs now. Thankfully, from what we know by spoken word and recordings, her success as a one-of-a-kind player was celebrated in her time. Especially in the face of misogyny, her success was well-earned and speaks volumes to the possibility of a less-conservative approach to the classical guitar.
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