Search - Carlos Barbosa-Lima: Favorite Solos on DVD

Flawed but worthwhile

Malleus Maleficarum | 10/16/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"First, "production values": homemade-video style as is typical for Mel Bay. Titles with grammatical errors (Debussy became De Busy, stuff like that -- no big deal but still annoys me to no end: what kind of low-brow/pay dolt could make such an error? This is typical for Mel Bay videos).

Second, Barbosa-Lima is not really a very good guitarist. He does, however, possess a supreme musicality, taste, and creativity. The music he plays is beautiful, his arrangements are fantastic. He just can't play them quite as intended by the author :-). He also appeared a bit tense and scared of the camera (kind of like I would be :-), but unusual for a professional).

As usual, Mel Bay's products are geared more towards musicians than the general public. With that in mind, I think classical-guitar players (and lovers too) will like this video. It should really come with the sheet music for the pieces played there: you will want to play this stuff, it's really nice, catchy, infectuous. The DVD is imperfect but charming: worth having, for sure."