Andrés Segovia Archive: French Composers
Raymond Petit
One year before De Breville’s Fantaisie, another untitled work was written in 1925 by Raymond Petit (1893-1976). Composer, writer and music journalist, he was very active in Paris during the 1920s and 30s. In fact, he praised Segovia in numerous concert reviews.
In 1926, Segovia gave a concert that featured the premier of a Petit piece under the title Andantino. A reviewer of that concert described it as a Sicilienne in E minor, with a melancholic and gentle character, like a reverie. in the E major section, (approximately in the middle of the piece), there is an obvious reference to a theme in Pietro Mascagni’s Sicilian-based opera Cavalleria Rusticana.
Even if Segovia liked the work and played its first performance, strangely enough it was the last time he played it in public. Why? There is no objective reason that we know of. Both Segovia and Petit were men of strong character. Petit composed another solo guitar piece, Nocturne (dated 1925) which he dedicated to the Spanish guitarist Emilio Pujol.
—Roberto Moronn Pérez