It may have been due to the conservatism of Sor's musical education in Spain that he began to compose in a style akin to that of Mozart over a decade after the latter's death in 1791. He wrote music for many of the conventional media (chamber, orchestra, vocal, ballet, etc.) and it had some success, yet it is his guitar music by which he is known today. Sor adapted the language and aesthetic of Mozart to his instrument with gentle poeticism, refined taste, and a skill that is made evident by this juxtaposition; his own works were written for the guitar and the airs from Die Zauberflote are made to sound as though they too were. Likewise, in Barrueco's arrangements Mozart's piano works sound like guitar music, written by Sor at moments of more sublime inspiration than he in fact ever enjoyed—Sor, viewed through a magnifying lens.
Brian Jeffery suggests that Sor's love-affair with Die Zauberflote may have begun with its first major production in London in 1819, where Sor was then living, and there is no reason to doubt this. The arrangements of five of the airs are faithful to the originals but ''Das klinget so herrlich'' is slightly embroidered—and even more so when presented as the subject of the Op. 9 Variations.
If Barrueco diverges from the first-edition text of the Grand Solo, so too do most others; the numerous nineteenth-century editions make it difficult to decide exactly what its content might or should be. Barrueco's free treatment and virtuosic trimmings bring new life to a somewhat overworked piece. One word suffices to describe the musical sensitivity and technical finesse of these performances—they are superb, as also is the recorded sound. The programme too has a cohesion that is lacking in most others in which the 'inevitable' Sor Opp. 9 and 14 appear.'