Last Viennese Virtuoso

FRANK BUNGARTEN

What a big sound! The basses on that guitar! For his new recording featuring compositions by the guitarist Johann Kaspar Mertz, Frank Bungarten has selected a very special instrument: a contraguitar designed on the basis of an exemplary historical model by Johann Gottfried Scherzer with a series of additional bass strings on a second neck. As a result, we now can experience the opulent sonority of Mertz's works just as they were originally heard - now for the first time since the death of the ''last Viennese virtuoso'' in 1856! As Mertz's arrangement of six songs by Schubert impressively demonstrates, he set high standards for his own music. He used not only the originals but also the highly complex and imaginative transcriptions prepared by Franz Liszt for his own very successful piano recitals - a daredevil venture with a remarkable result: the echo effect in the ''Standchen,'' though not prescribed by Schubert, is absolutely magnificent!

Price: $22.99