Italian classical guitarist Leonardo De Marchi performs Toccata Ritoccata by Marco De Biasi (b.1977) on a 10-String Guitar by Fabio Zontini. This comes via the Omni Foundation online series and their Youtube channel (go subscribe). Intense performance to match an equally intense composition. Below is some info on the work via the YouTube description:
The Toccata Ritoccata by Marco De Biasi (1977) is one of the few pieces in the guitar repertoire that was originally written for the six-string guitar and subsequently adapted for the distinctive ten-string instrument devised by Maurice Ohana and Narciso Yepes. The Toccata shares the fate of Ohana’s own famous Tiento, which was also adapted for the ten-string guitar from an initial six-string version.
The instrument designed by Ohana and Yepes has certain characteristics that define it not merely as an extension of the six-string guitar, but as an instrument in its own right. Firstly, its overall extension is lower than that of the traditional guitar. Secondly, the unique re-entrant tuning on one hand ensures a noticeable increase in sympathetic resonance and considerable sustain, and on the other hand allows for the creation of chordal masses of great harmonic richness and notable sonic impact.
Given these premises, it was inevitable that the two versions of the Toccata, despite having the same formal structure, would differ in certain details designed to optimize their idiomatic rendering on the target instrument. The large dimensions of the ten-string guitar’s neck, as well as the different and more complex management of dampening by the performer, required a slight adjustment to the initial tempo (set at 120 bpm for the dotted quarter note) and a management of articulations different from the six-string guitar. In some places, clusters have also been inserted in the bass register to enhance the excellent resonance capabilities of the ten-string guitar.
