The Guitar Master CD

2 CD Edition.

The Ultimate Collection, a double CD featuring his most distinguished pieces. The album includes recognizable tracks such as "Cavatina" from the film "The Deer Hunter" and "Gabriel's Oboe" from "The Mission," alongside classical masterpieces by Satie, Bach, and Handel.

John Williams has paved the way for a generation of classical guitarists with an astonishing output of benchmark recordings, transcriptions, and arrangements throughout his long and celebrated career. He has been described by a guitar authority like Graham Wade as “perhaps the most technically complete guitarist the world has seen” and by another like Andrés Segovia as a “prince of the guitar.”

Born in Melbourne, but settled in London from a very early age, John Williams studied at the Royal College of Music and in Siena with Andrés Segovia. Following his acclaimed debut at Wigmore Hall in 1958, he performed with great success in Paris, Madrid, and the Soviet Union, and in 1963 he made his debut in Japan and the United States.

Williams was one of the first classical musicians to play at Ronnie Scott's jazz club in London and has also appeared in rock concerts or with his own groups Sky, Attacca, and John Williams and Friends. His first album – Bach and Spanish Repertoire – was recorded for Columbia Masterworks in 1964, and seven years later he received a special award from CBS Records for selling a million records, a unique feat at the time for a classical musician.