FEBRUARY 2018 | From Granada to Buenos Aires | Duo Diez

FEBRUARY 2018 | From Granada to Buenos Aires | Duo Diez

By RAY PICOT

The debut album from Duo Diez is a much-needed antidote to our winter grey skies, as they take us on a virtuoso journey From Granada to Buenos Aires. The duo, Violeta Barrena (violin) and Dimitris Dekavallas (guitar) will be familiar to those who saw their outstanding performances at our PanAmericana concert last year, and Dimitris has performed solo and in a duo at our past guitar festivals. The repertoire they have chosen proves to be ideal for this unusual combination of instruments, and they are also recorded very well, with an ideal balance achieved for their quite different timbres. The two musicians started performing together as Duo Diez in 2012, alongside their own solo commitments, and intriguingly took their name through the combined number of strings on Violeta’s 1735 Sanctus Seraphin violin and Dimitris’ Greg Smallman 2008 guitar. This album was recorded in 2015, and the duo’s effortless virtuosity reveals that they have the repertoire of Spanish and Latin American music under their fingers, revelling in its colours and rhythms.

The album fizzes into life as the duo launch into their brilliant arrangement of the ever-popular Spanish form La malagueña. An insistent and repeated melodic line played on the violin and a mesmerising driving rhythm powered by Dimitris’ guitar offers a dynamic and brilliant opener. The mood changes down with the wistful and lyrical Anda, jaleo, the first of the duo’s arrangement of a selection of six songs from the set of the flamenco-inspired Canciones españolas antiguas by the iconic poet and playwright Federico García Lorca. Written in 1922 for a festival promoting flamenco performance, and scored originally for voice and piano, their popularity has lead to numerous arrangements, and I found that this idiomatic arrangement for violin and guitar really does get to the musical heart of these deceptively simple but effective songs, allowing the melodies to take wing. This representative collection from the original thirteen does offer a very musically-satisfying flamenco inspired-instrumental suite.

A pair of pieces by Spain’s most famous violinist, Pablo de Sarasate, keep us in touch with Granada. The two dances, another delightfully trilling Spanish 'Malagueña' and a foot tapping 'Zapateado', offer Violetta Barrena a perfect vehicle for her wonderful instrument, toying with the virtuoso lines with complete ease, playful and exuberant, and underpinned by by Dimitris Dekavallas’ idiomatic guitar work. These lead into a subtle realisation for solo guitar of Isaac Albeniz’s 'Asturias' from Chants d’Espagne, played with superb control and assurance. But we leave Spain with the duo’s very own composition, From Spain, with whirling flamenco guitars and the singing voice of the violin, in a riot of colour and sound, cleverly incorporating elements of improvisation.

We then go to Mexico with a charmingly sentimental arrangement of Manuel Maria Ponce’s timeless Estrellita, giving the listener a moment to catch breath before heading for Brazil and Argentina. Celso Machado writes in a more popular vein, but the three pieces from his Musiques populaires brésiliennes, originally written for flute and guitar, offer a very attractive contrast. The set explores different dance rhythms, and the duo dish up exuberant renditions of the samba and bossa nova. The final pieces explore different approaches to the tango, starting with Carlos Gardel, whose song about a compulsive horse-racing gambler, Por una cabeza, may be recognised for its appearances in many films. This inevitably leads to the inimitable Astor Piazzolla, who is represented by three separate pieces, Verano porteño, Milonga del Angel and Libertango. We are used to hearing Piazzolla’s music in many different arrangements, but once more the duo strike gold, as we find that the combination of guitar and violin sound really idiomatic, picking out the punchy rhythms and soaring melodies. These pieces will be known to most readers, but they do sound quite original in their new guise, particularly when played with such élan and virtuosity.

Bravo to Duo Diez for breathing new life into familiar pieces, with a disc of many delights which will bring a lot of listening pleasure. The album is widely available to download and as a CD from the artists’ website: www.duodiez.com.

 

 

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