NEW TRANSCRIPTION - Concerto Italiano BWV971 by J.S.Bach!
During my teaching career, I had the honor to work with many top guitar ensembles, among them the Duo Melis. Their otherworldly musical and technical skills inspired me in 2001 to transcribe one of my favorite pieces, the Concerto nach Italienischem Gusto, BWV 971 (this is its original title) by J.S.Bach.
Since then many duo’s chose to play this transcription (like for instance, the Duo Scarlatti and The Duo Ivanovic- Kontaxakis, which also produced a wonderful recording of it).
The choice of the tonality of D major enables to play the entire piece with almost no changes respect to the original disposition of the note and confers, even more important, the necessary brightness and sparkle for bringing out the genuine character of this Concerto. The fingering serves the articulation, the one written by J.S.Bach and the one which was expected to be completed by the performer (me in this case), for those reasons, in some situations it might not seem to be the easiest choice.
In any case, I’d like every performer of this work to feel free to change it after her-his italienischem Gusto! I wish you a great time with this fantastic piece!