REVIEWS
Mozart on Guitar: Transcriptions and Adaptations
“Mozart's music seems to be of interest to all musicians and Teopini, who plays Mozart's works in this album, has been familiar with Mozart since childhood. His interest in arranging and performing Mozart's works for guitar was sparked by hearing [Manuel] Barrueco's arrangements of Mozart. In the liner notes, Teopini provides [information on the] history of [guitar] arrangements of major Mozart works (starting from the classical period)[;] truthfully, there are many arrangements for guitar of Mozart[‘s music], who did not compose any piece for guitar. The arrangements are chosen and recorded from a wide variety of instrumental combinations […]. By arranging it for the guitar, the uniqueness of the instruments are lost, but the essence of the music itself is fully expressed through the tone of the guitar. The [transcription of the] “Seven Variations” [composed by Mozart] at the age of 10 […] gives the impression of variations [written specifically] for a guitar of that time, and one can also feel [that sort of] original atmosphere of the guitar.”
Gendai Guitar,
(Translation Japanese – English: Lily Chiho)
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“Francesco Teopini is an arranger and performer of Mozart's music on the guitar. He is a guitarist who is establishing himself for his interpretive abilities […]. He has edited many adaptations and transcriptions of various works not only by Mozart. Mozart is a great love of his, and indeed he dedicated an entire album to Mozart. [This is a] very multifaceted album of transcriptions and adaptations ranging from pieces written by a very young Mozart [to works] dating back to the last year of the composer's life[. Teopini makes] tonally diversified choices that require great acumen and knowledge of the guitar language, [which are necessary features] to create effective transcriptions such as [the ones featured] in this Da Vinci Classics record.”
Diego Procoli, Primo Movimento
(Translation Italian – English: Francesco Teopini Terzetti Casagrande)
J. S. Bach: Sonatas and Partitas BWV 1001-1006 (Brilliant Classics, 2016)
“My congratulations to Francesco Teopini for this major undertaking of recording Bach’s entire violin works on guitar. He plays with a beautiful sound, faithfully recorded. His interpretation shows a deep understanding of these major works. My sincere compliments, Francesco!”
David Russell, preface in the booklet of
J.S. Bach: Sonatas and Partitas BWV 1001–1006.
“So, [how about Teopini’s] transcription of this monument for solo violin in direction of the guitar? Magnificent, it sounds physically more ‘resonant.’”
Gilles-Daniel Percet, Clic Musique!
(Translation French – English:
Francesco Teopini Terzetti Casagrande)
“[Francesco Teopini’s] interpretation is mindful…he takes advantage of the guitar’s potential by discretely adding some bass…adding chords from time to time and holding on to contrapuntal lines, which is much more complicated with a bow. His phrasing is accommodating and slightly warm (the rubato is never overstated); after all, Bach avoided annotating something that could not be played. Like favorite [Frank] Bungarten[s’ guitar recording of the same works], Teopini depicts these extraordinary works in a warm, human, relaxed and stylish manner.”
Jan de Kruijff, Musikalifeten
(Translation Dutch – English: Sytzke Warns)
“Francesco Teopini does the honors on the nylon stringed classical instrument. The results are alternately introspective and lively, and always rather brightly insightful. Teopini gives us warm, feelingful readings, nicely idiomatic interpretations that have a glow of sincerity, ringingly clear and expressive. The three Sonatas and Partitas come to us with loving care and an immanent presence on the guitar. It is as if we are hearing these pieces anew, yet the deja-vu recognition points come at us regularly, like the gradual dawning that the person who is speaking to us is our long-lost life twin. Brilliant!”
Gregory Applegate Edwards,
Gapplegate Classical Modern Music Review
“Recording the six jewels for solo violin on the guitar when somebody is only thirty years old requires some courage. Francesco Teopini does not lack of it in an intense and felt interpretation, never polluted by hazardous effects. If it differs from [previous versions for guitar of the Sonatas and Partitas], above all it is due to the way he approaches the violin [style] more closely, in particular by using only the tirando technique […]. The result is particularly noticeable in the three sonatas, where this restriction generates no monochrom[atic sound] thanks to a sensitive left hand and a real work on the timbres. […] The Gigues, [which possess] the energy of a breaking wave, have an undeniable rhythmic punch, which is also found in the Prelude of Partita No. 3 – here, Teopini has nothing to envy to the iconic version of John Williams. […] The central arpeggios [of the Chaconne] are executed with great sensitivity, from a 'Bach-Busoni' perspective from which the guitar is certainly far from having the advantages of the piano…The sound of Teopini, endowed with warmth and attack but also power, gives to the Siciliana of Partita No. 1 and the Menuets of [Partita] No. 3 all their grace.”
Emile Huvé, Diapason – four stars review
(Translation French – English:
Francesco Teopini Terzetti Casagrande)
“The guitarist Francesco Teopini offers us the opportunity to get near the Sonatas and Partitas BWV 1001-1006 by J. S. Bach. These works, which are of reference for the solo violin repertoire, have been recorded for their original instrument in a multitude of occasions […]. On this occasion, the interpreter himself was in charge of making the transcription of the works, demonstrating a
wide knowledge of the opuses of J. S. Bach, both in the works’ elaboration and interpretation. The adaptation from the original is relatively discreet, with small changes, such as the addition of some bass note to amplify the movement of the chords, as you can hear at certain moments in the dance airs that constitute the three partitas collected in the recording. The three sonatas da chiesa, in which the composer gives a lot of margin for ornamentation, have been transcribed pretty simply, without getting excessively complicated, adorned only at specific moments. It is really remarkable how well the original language adapts to this instrument, the counterpoint and melodic lines maintain their clarity and neatness, giving us a interpretation whose result is intense, dramatic and idiomatic, doing justice to the original version. Although there can be somebody who might not understand the interpretative criteria with which some movement are approached, we are in front of a recording that achieves a beautiful sound and a dignified interpretation, and which has been praised by great masters.”
Pedro Téllez, Melá½¹mano Digital
(Translation Spanish – English:
Francesco Teopini Terzetti Casagrande)