Manuel Ponce's Sonata Romantica for Classical Guitar - Free Videos and Sheet Music

In 1929 Mauel Ponce (1882-1948) created one of the greatest works in the classical guitar repertoire: his Sonata Romantica.

The story is that the guitarist Andres Segovia asked him to compose a piece for the guitar which was in the style of the Romantic Period. The piece is deciated to Andres Segovia and its subtitle is Hommage a Franz Schubert. Schubert was a leading composer during the Romantic Period.

One thing that I love about this piece is that it is a Sonata in four movements. The guitar repertoire simply does not have many multi-movement works. Here are the first and fourth movements, which are my favorites. They are being performed by David Hawkins at the University of Southern Mississippi in April 2009.

My favorite recording of this piece is my Jason Vieaux.  He recorded not only this piece, but all of Ponce's other guitar sonatas.  And they are all on one CD!