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Austin360 blogs > Austin Arts: Seeing Things > Archives > 2011 > July > 17 > Entry
Review: Bandini-Chiacchiaretta Duo
In their first concert in the United States, the Bandini-Chiacchiaretta Duo unleashed a virtuosic yet utterly charming torrent of tango music.
The charismatic Italian duo (Giampaolo Bandini on guitar, Cesare Chiacchiaretta on bandoneón) played two sold-out shows Saturday at the Mexican American Cultural Center. The concerts were a co-presentation of the Austin Chamber Music Center and the Austin Classical Guitar Center.
Bandini-Chiacchiaretta expertly captured tango’s complex and contradictory tones and moods — from the velvet melancholic melodies to the nervous and jittery rhythms to the sultry and sensuous songs.
It’s said in tango lore that bandoneonistas must dance with their instrument. And dance Chiacchiaretta did, drawing an extraordinarily varied range of color and emotion from the sonically complicated instrument with plenty of individual flair. Likewise, Bandini brought a bracing finesse to the multifaceted sonorities of the South American music that has shares both European and African roots.
Though the music of nuevo tango originator Ástor Piazzolla framed the concert, the duo interspersed their program with a sampling of compositions old and new.
Fernando Carlos Tavolaro’s “Milonga No. 5.” was heartbreakingly beautiful in classic nuevo tango style while Máximo Diego Pujol’s decidedly modern “Nubes de Buenos Aires” showed the urbane style that many post-Piazzolla tango composers have developed.
And as if to prove their contemporary mastery, the duo brought considerable panache to their highly original version of “El Choclo,” one of tango’s most popular of the classic tango tunes.
Still, the pair’s heartfelt and intelligent interpretations of some of Piazzolla’s best-known compositions — “Zita,” “Oblivion,” and “Libertango,” among others — proved the most thrilling and made for a rousing United States debut for the Bandini-Chiacchiaretta Duo.
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