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According to Tony Morris of GuitarAlive.org, a long-lost recording of Barrios has been found. It’s a recording of Barrios himself playing Bicho Feo.

Says Tony:

The original 78 recording by Barrios himself has been found independently by 2 different sources, both within a period of two months. Bicho Feo, or “Ugly Bug” is a humorous tango that Barrios used to play at the end of his concerts to bring the house down. The manuscript of the score has never been found, but Barrios recorded it on the Atlanta label in Argentina, and two copies have been found! Huge news for the classical guitar world.

There are lots of references to Bicho Feo in Six Silver Moonbeams: The Life and Times of Agustin Barrios Mangore

Overheard in the Barnyard:

The-An was a student of Stephan Rak. He did the arrangement, available from his web site, I think.

Enjoy,
John

I enjoyed that video. I think a great deal of sincerity comes across.

But I’m going to criticize — just a little, because I don’t like to criticize — but I will in this case because I don’t think it will hurt anyone and maybe it will help a little.

When Rak-style tremolo effects succeed, the result can be compelling. A sort of cinematic illumination occurs. But take it too far and it gets too rough. The beauty evaporates into crashing noisiness.

In this case, the piece eventually became a little too noisy and chased off the gentle mood that had been so nicely built in the beginning. It’s not the fault of the guitar playing, but rather that the arrangement itself calls for too much of a good thing. Sometimes less is more.

Back to the positivity: it looks like there’s a goldmine of Vietnamese guitar players and guitar music on YouTube!

Thank you for opening that door, John Nguyen.

America the Beautiful arranged for classical guitar solo. I’m not sure who the arranger is. (Is Stuart the arranger? Please leave a comment if you know.)

This could be a hit..

Astor Piazzolla’s wildly popular Libertango cannot be delivered persuasively on solo guitar — or so I thought until I came across this encouraging interpretation by Alberto Morelli: