Mercury Living Presence Los Romeros Box Set – 10 CDs
**** CONGRATULATIONS to the THREE WINNERS of the Los Romeros Mercury Living Presence Box Set Giveaway: Terry Curran, Pavel Ralev and Mohammed Rashed ****
On 8 March 2024, Pepe Romero celebrated his 80th birthday! and he continues to tour the world performing solo, in the Los Romeros quartet and as a soloist with orchestra, as well as teaching masterclasses. On 3 September 2023, Pepe Romero premièred David Leisner’s guitar concerto, Wayfaring at the Hamptons Festival of Music.
In my recent interview with Pepe Romero, to coincide with his 80th birthday (Gendai Guitar magazine, March 2024), we talked about his career from his very first concert on a guitar with gut strings, to the family move from Spain to the USA and the establishment of Los Romeros by his father Celedonio Romero, with his brothers Celín and Ángel, and their recordings. And, of course, the next generation of Romeros!
I was also very excited to hear of the re-release of the Mercury Living Presence recordings on Decca.
Included in the Mercury Living Presence Los Romeros Box Set – 10 CD box set are the two recordings by Contemporary Records from January 1960, these pre-date their Mercury recordings: Pepe Romero’s first recording ¡Flamenco Fenomeno! and a recording of solos by Celedonio Romero and Celín Romero until the title of Spanish Guitar Music.
The approach to recording music, established at the start of the 1950s by the sound engineer C. Robert ‘Bob’ Fine, working in close collaboration with Wilma Cozart to create Mercury Living Presence is fascinating. For more details, see Trust Your Ears: Exploring the History of Mercury Living Presence.
The liner notes in this superb Los Romeros collection include an article by Thomas Fine, son of C. Robert ‘Bob’ Fine and Wilma Cozart, who worked on the remastering of the original recordings. All the original liner notes of the recordings are included and there is also an essay by Walter Aaron Clark, author of Los Romeros: Royal Family of the Spanish Guitar.
DECCA has offered three Mercury Living Presence LOS ROMEROS box sets
for readers of International Classical Guitar.
If you would like to be one of the three readers to win a Mercury Living Presence LOS ROMEROS box set, please send an email with the Subject Heading LOS ROMEROS GIVEAWAY include your Name and Address (UK and Europe readers only) and list the names of the members of the original Los Romeros guitar quartet. Send an email to: classical.guitar.comps@gmail.com
Closing date: midnight 16 June 2024.
Winners will be announced here and notified by email on 18 June 2024.
In the meantime, here is a lovely interview of Celín, Pepe and Ángel Romero by their biographer Walter Aaron Clark:
International Classical Guitar 