Fernando Sor is one of the greatest composers in the history of classical guitar. Although he composed several chamber music works, songs and arias, ballets and orchestral music, he is today best known for his classical guitar opus. Sor’s large-scale works, including sonatas, fantasies and theme and variations, are now considered essential for every classical guitarist’s repertory. Moreover, he composed as many as 121 études and presented his method for the classical guitar in a book titled Méthode pour la Guitare. Probably the most famous work by Sor, Introduction and Variations on a Theme by Mozart, Op. 9, is supposedly based on the chorus “Das Klinget So Herrlich” from Mozart’s opera The Magic Flute, but actually bears little resemblance to Mozart’s melody, as if Sor hadn’t remembered it properly. Op. 9 was first published in London in 1821 and was likely inspired by the opera’s first major production in England in May 1819, when Sor was in the area. Sor was also one of the first composers to write études, each exploring a particular aspect of guitar technique, such as playing in thirds, tremolo, arpeggios etc., while at the same time being musical compositions in their own right, with beautiful musical texture. Today his études are considered among his best known and loved work, partly due to a compilation of 20 studies, put together by Andrés Segovia (1893-1987), who included them frequently in his recitals. Half of these études (Op. 6, 29 and 35) are included in this album. Grande sonate, Op. 22, is a virtuoso piece in four movements that follows the syntax of a classical-period symphony. The first movement is written in a classical sonata style, with a memorable main theme and rich modulations in the development section, before this resolves itself harmonically and thematically in the recapitulation. The second movement presents itself with a beautiful melancholy melody, while the the third and the fourth movement are reminiscent of Haydnesque style.