Alexandre Lagoya; Classical Guitarist

Alexandre Lagoya, one of the century’s great classical guitarists, died Tuesday in Paris after a long illness. He was 70.

Lagoya achieved international renown in partnership with his first wife, Ida Presti. The Presti-Lagoya Duo, which was active from the early 1950s to 1967, was known for its intensely emotional and vibrant interpretations.

After Presti’s death, Lagoya resumed a solo career, but also was noted for his collaborations during the 1980s with flutist Jean-Pierre Rampal.

Lagoya was a respected teacher of guitar, serving at the Conservatoire National Superieur in Paris and the International Academy of Music in Nice, France.

Lagoya was born in Alexandria, Egypt, of Greek and Italian parents. He took up the guitar when he was 8 and made his performing debut at 13. In his adolescent years, he divided his time between guitar and boxing--a mix, he once said, that “proved a good spread of teenage emotions.”

By 19, however, he had begun to prefer the concert stage to the boxing ring. After giving about 300 concerts throughout the Middle East, he moved to Europe, where he studied at the Siena Summer School with Andres Segovia and at the Ecole Normale de Musique in Paris.

Lagoya met Presti in 1950 in Paris. Presti, who had begun her recording career in 1934 when she was 10, was already famous. They quickly formed a mutual admiration society of two. Their bonds deepened into love, and they were wed in 1952. Their son, Sylvain, was born the following year.

Shortly after their marriage, they made their debut as the Presti-Lagoya Duo. Faced with a sparse repertory for guitar duos, they began to transcribe works written for the keyboard by Bach, Debussy, Scarlatti and other composers. Later, composers such as Rodrigo, Torroba, Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Petit and Jolivet dedicated works to them.

Playing on guitars crafted by French luthier Robert Bouchet, the duo made important contributions to guitar technique, including the cross-string trill.

“It was a great teacher for me,” Lagoya said years later of his partnership with Presti. “Now, I try to use many different colors when I play, to create the sound of two guitars.”

The duo made many recordings and gave 2,000 recitals around the world until 1967, when Presti died suddenly at age 43.

After her death, Lagoya took a year-long hiatus from performing and did not tour for five years. He had always found it difficult to play in public, and without Presti, he said, “it was more difficult. I was alone.”

When he returned to the stage in solo and concerto appearances, he often teamed up with Rampal, whom he had met in Paris when he was 20.

Lagoya made a memorable recording with Rampal of composer Claude Bolling’s “Picnic Suite,” a rare venture into jazz for the classical guitarist. Other recordings with Rampal included guitar concertos by Vivaldi, Carulli and Rodrigo.

In addition to his son, Lagoya, who later remarried, is survived by his wife Monelle and daughter Elisabeth.