This is actually how i discovered Steve Vai. In my opinion, it's his best work. BTW, he played all the guitar parts, classical shredding included.
Ry Cooder played the blues slide parts but the rest is Steve. You know -- my one complaint about the duel is that it has never been convincing to me that Steve's character (Jack Butler) couldn't play the piece -- I mean he fails just trying to bend a note!
Anyway, the same piece is played on the acoustic guitar at the start of the movie by William Kanengiser. The arrangement Steve used (I think he created it, not sure) for the duel works for picking. But like I said it's the multiple voice work that differentiates classical work for me.
BTW, I got turned on the Steve at a Zappa concert in '80, I think (may have been '79). I love him -- not just the technical brilliance, but the musical adventurousness and the showmanship.
Here's a taste of Kanengiser, FWIW:
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Not the toughest piece, but it does illustrate the point about more than one thing going on at the same time. Really tough to do picking. EJ does some things like this that are pretty cool:
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