These companion editions of Kapsberger and Piccinini are thoroughly researched and documented with extensive introductory material in French and original text facsimiles (which are not included in the page counts above.) Both seek to adhere to the sound and technical manner of the theorbo by using a radical scordatura of 1st to D, 2nd to B/B flat, and 6th to D (.).
Those who manage to get past the strange tuning will find music of much promise in that peculiar domain where a great deal of the music's worth resides both in the instrumental colour and in the stylistic projection of the performance. The change of instrument is a challenge to the matter of colour, which the tuning probably mostly overcomes, and upper grade players with a weakness for the odd corners of the baroque will probably find the interpretative possibilities of interest.
(Stephen Kenyon, Classical Guitar Magazine)
