Title : 300 Years of Guitar Masterpieces
Author : Bach, Johann Sebastian
Release Date : 19921104
Binding : Audio CD
Regular Price : $15.98
Amazon.com Price : $13.27
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Editorial Reviews : Manuel Barrueco is one of the best guitarists I've ever heard. Listen to his own arrangement of Albeniz's Suite Española and you'll have trouble believing it's only two hands on one guitar. But Barrueco doesn't use his technique to show off. He's a solid musician, as expressive in Bach as in Villa- Lobos. He also makes transcriptions that respect the origins of the music. This is a wide-ranging guitar collection, but all the music is worth hearing, especially in performances like these. The disc is one of the best bargains among all guitar recordings, and Vox's recordings still sound like a guitar. --Leslie Gerber
Buyer Reviews : I listened so often to Barrueco's version of 'Granada' in my early days, that I discovered this charming fact: if you crank the volume way up at the end of the piece, you can actually hear a car horn honk in the background! At least that was true in the LP version, and frankly I'd be a little disappointed if it was cut out in the CD version. This is a lovely set of recordings. The Bach suites are elegant; 20 years ago it was a surprise to hear the lute suites ornamented so thoughtfully. As other commentators have already mentioned, the Albeniz and Granados music really stands out here. Barrueco actually observes the volume markings on such pieces as 'Sevilla,' playing the opening bars 'piano' as marked in the score...a rare thing indeed. This recording was the first to make 'Cataluna' a popular guitar piece (Barrueco sounds like Franz Liszt as he thunders through that composition), and the first to play 'Cadiz' in the more comfortable key of A. Not surprisingly, his version of Albeniz's 'Cuba' is genius. The 'Spanish Dances' of Granados are equally a revelation. It was this recording that made Dance #4 a standard performance piece, a lovely folk-song melody. Anyway, this recording is a great bargain, and a good chance to hear a fine artist in his earlier years. Buy it, and see if that distant horn honk is still there during the final seconds of 'Granada.' I love it when life seeps in through the cracks of our beloved classical world.
