Harmony 'n' rhythm

Tango Maestros

An evening of musical delight was organised jointly by the Bangalore School of Music in association with the Alliance Francaise recently.

The concert featured two musicians, maestros in their own right who kept Bangalore’s music lovers rivetted with their performance playing with perfect harmony and understanding.

There was Yohann Egret, a 30- year-old flute professor from France, who plays with different groups as well performs as a soloist in different genres from Classical to World Music. In 2004, he created the Resonances, a quintet that explored the richness of World Music as well as a piece of musical storytelling of The Little Prince.

The second performer, Shyamant Behalf, is a guitarist who began playing the classical guitar at the age of fourteen and studied under Geneviève Chanut at the Ecole Normale de Musique de Paris perfecting his skill as a world class musician. Since his return to Delhi in 2007, he has given a number of concerts, both as a soloist and with different ensembles.

He has formed a guitar quartet in Delhi with some of his students who are now  full-fledged musicians themselves. The first half of the concert was devoted to French composers. It began with Tango, a piece by Eric Marchellie.

Then followed a Suite — Buenos Aires by Maximo Diego Pujol consisting of 4 short pieces, viz: Pompeya, Palermo, Santelmo and Microcento. Although they were short, they required impeccable technique and the duo executed them to perfection. The third piece was Guajira by Emilio Pujol, then came a contemporary composition by Bozza called Imagine and last piece of the first half Entracte by Jacque Ibert.

Interspersing the entire performance with bursts of spontaneous applause, the audience kept the energy levels of the evening high even as the duo took a very short break before settling down for the second half which was a tribute to Brazilian and Argentinian composers.

The first was a composition by Celso Machado consisting of four short pieces, viz: Pacoca, Algodo, Dolce and Sambossa. Then came the climax of the evening which was undoubtedly Pode Moleque Piazolla’s History of the Tango, a sensuous earthy group of four compositions that took the audience back in time to the end of the 19th century, where the popular dance first originated.

The first piece aptly named Brothel was full of powerful sensual movement.

Shyamant Behalf explained to the audience how the long lines of men waiting their turn at the highly patronised brothels in Argentina would be swept up by the catchy beat of the loud music playing that they would end up dancing with each other.

The second piece Cafe set in a later period when the tango became more refined followed by Nightclub when the dance became far more elegant and sophisticated and ending on a flourish with Concert.

Judging by the cries of ‘encore’ from the rapt audience, the entire performance was a great success and the duo returned to take their bows, playing Adios Muchachos by Carlos Gardel, a lively exciting piece that ended the evening on a high note.