GEORGE NEWS - For our end-of-the-week treat, the George Music Society hosted James Grace, guitar, and David Bester, violin, in a concert entitled Paganini to Piazzolla with a decent sized audience to hear them.
The programme opened with Paganini's Sonata concertanta. Although primarily a violinist, Paganini also played and composed for the guitar, so in 1804 he wrote this sonata for violin and guitar as part of a set of salon pieces.
In the beginning there were a few problems with balance between the instruments but this soon resolved itself and the audience was treated to a sprightly allegro followed by an adagio, rather like a chat session, and finishing with a sprightly rondo.
Clearly these two musicians were enjoying themselves so everyone settled down to a gentle evening of good music.
Mauro Giuliani was a guitarist and a cellist, and is probably the first composer of a concerto for guitar and orchestra, although Franco Carulli also claims that honour. The Grand duo concertante heard on Friday is arguably his best known work and is scored for either flute or violin and guitar. It is a brilliant composition in four movements that allows for both instrumentalists to show off. The andante was sublimely serene and the work ended with a hectic allegretto espressivo with both players swapping themes.
After the interval four popular Brazilian dances by Celso Machado (b. 1953) included a chôro, a popular form of cultural folk music, a bossa nova and a samba. These dances are all very similar in style but lacked the seductiveness of a tango.
The fourth offering of the evening was Histoire du tango by Astor Piazzolla. This work traces the history of the tango over a period of a hundred years in 30-year intervals, from the bordellos, through cafes and nightclubs to the modern day with ever-changing emotions. Bester's violin portrayed these emotions superbly, backed up by Grace's subtle accompaniments.
As an encore Grace and Bester chose to play Paganini's hauntingly beautiful Andante cantabile to send the audience home well satisfied and hoping to hear more from these two fine musicians.
This was a splendid evening producing some contemplative moods which were, unfortunately, disrupted by compulsive applause between movements and the light from cellphones of people messaging.
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