BARRIOS: Vals Op8 No3; Las Abejas; Julia Florida; Dinora; Vals Brillant Op8 No4;Una Limosna Por El Amor De Dios; Mabelita; Escala y Preludio; Estudio en Arpegio; Estudio en Sol Menor; Estudio de Conceirto No1, Estudio del Ligado; Medallon Antiguo; Gavota al Estilo Antiguo; Hommage a Bach; Un Sueno en la Floresta; Estilo Uruguayo; Danza Paraguaya No1; Jha , Che Valle, Cordoba.
Enno Voorhorst
Brilliant Classics
Having spent 3 years of my life in the early 80s transcribing from his original recordings all the Barrios pieces onto notation, and then spending years afterwards getting to know everything Barrios., I feel I am an expert in the subject. The first thing to say is that the player is definitely in possession of the (sometimes) crazy technique that you need to bring them off successfully, just take track two Les Abejas, where he races through it at piano speed! It sounds wonderful, and as there is no extant recording of Barrios playing it then we only have the manuscripts to go on. However, I must confess to finding a number of either misreads or wrong notes in a few pieces. For example The Vals Op8 No3, is in Dm with a Bb key signature, and yet in bar 41 the second beat has a Bb and a G underneath, but Voorhurst plays a B natural. It’s not a B natural, nor does Barrios play one on his original recording. In the same piece, later in bar 123, Voorhurst plays the same run as in bar 90, which is not on the music, as the second time it is slightly different. Moreover in Bar 132, he plays an A#, instead of the A natural on the score and the recording. In Julia Florida he places an extra low G bass note halfway through the bar in bar 26, which is not on any manuscript I have seen .In Dinora in bar 13 there is an extra harmony note below the melody, not in any score I have seen. More importantly in the same piece Bar 39, he alters the melody note from an F natural to an F#, which really doesn’t work because in the piece a few bars before it IS an F#, but he then on the repeat places an F natural to facilitate a key change, which Voorhurst doesn’t play.I won’t bother listing any more, but you understand where I am coming from here, I hope?
If this is nit – picking, then I apologize, but I felt I had to point out some of the short – comings in the CD. The playing is brilliant! His fast runs around many of the pieces are breath – taking, but there are these niggling details that I didn’t like. Therefore as a recording of some of the most wonderful music ever written for the guitar it is superb and if you don’t know much of the Barrios works, these little details won’t perhaps bother you, but IF you do know them well and are used to the notes and all the small details, there are perhaps a few places here where it doesn’t really work.
Chris Dumigan