Hi Shahrukh, I second your opinion. I attended the first four days of the festival, and I thought the musicians on Friday and Saturday night were excellent, and in particular Hyperion and Alfredo Marcucci.
Hyperion also performed a free concert at the Grand Place (or Central Square) of Brussels the next evening, but I unfortunately missed it. What did you think about the festival organization and the level of performances? It was my first proper tango festival (having danced for 2 years mostly in Western Europe). Abrazos Hippy On Tue, Apr 7, 2009 at 11:16 PM, Shahrukh Merchant < [email protected]> wrote: > By a quirk of fate (and OK, some personal schedule manipulation on my > part :-)), I happened to be at the Brussels Tango Festival, which just > ended yesterday. > > I may (or not ... since it would take a while to write ...) make the > time to post some observations on the festival, but until then, I feel I > really need to mention the "featured orchestra" of the festival, > ENSEMBLE HYPERION -- see their website at www.ensemblehyperion.com > (mostly in Italian). (They are not to be confused with the similarly > named "Hyperion Ensemble," which is a chamber music ensemble out of > Salzburg.) > > Undoubtedly, they are well-known to European festival goers, but I had > never heard them (nor, I admit, of them). They are based out of Italy > and are simply one of the best Tango orchestras I have ever danced to > (and sacrilege though it may be to say, better than most out of Buenos > Aires, at least the ones that play at Milongas there)! (Those who know > me know that I do not make superlative recommendations like this > lightly, if at all.) > > Their actually play SEVERAL golden-era orchestras convincingly > (especially Pugliese, but Di Sarli and Donato as well, to name just a > few), and are excellent musicians. > > The ensemble comprised one bandoneon (Alfredo Marcucci, who is really > excellent and a passionate player), two violins, piano, guitar, > transverse flute and bass. Franco Luciani joined in on some pieces with > harmonica (gives Hugo Diaz a run for his money ...). They did NOT have a > vocalist (which admittedly would be a very tricky addition--perhaps they > are smart in not including one), but I did not really miss that since > the DJ'ed music had an abundance of the classic vocals. > > I would suggest that North American and Asian Tango organizers consider > inviting them, or coordinate amongst each other (okay, so I'm an > idealist :-)) so they can justify a North American or Asian regional tour. > > Also, while I have not heard any of their recordings on CD, Tango DJs > may wish to review their recordings to add to the very thinly populated > genre of "convincing modern recordings of classic-era arrangements." > > Shahrukh > _______________________________________________ > Tango-L mailing list > [email protected] > http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/tango-l > _______________________________________________ Tango-L mailing list [email protected] http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/tango-l
