Tango is the most exciting, exotic and erotic of all dance genres. It is the
spiritual character of the music that encouraged Luis Bacalov, the
Argentinian Academy Award-winning composer, to set a mass in tango
form but with a text that makes the celebration of the Eucharist an
expression of faith accessible to all.
The chorus conductor David Temple drew from his singers and players a
performance of vitality with every Latin nuance brought out loud and
clear. The ring of authenticity was no doubt due to the presence of Hector
Ulises Passarella, a maestro of the bandoneón, whose solo passages
were riveting. Overall, it was a performance that was truly worthy of a UK
premiere.
The chorus offered a second UK premiere with Philip Glass’s Itaipu,
written to celebrate the completion of a hydro-electric dam on the Paraná
River. This is typical masterful minimalism; long rhythmic phrases
shrouding a text in obscure language, but with its hypnotic ostinato and
brilliant sound images we are propelled down the river, from the jungles
of the Mato Grosso to the sea. Again, Temple drew the most out of his
ensemble, who sustained a taut rhythmic pulse from the first note to the
last. What a vivid journey.
The programme’s South American theme opened with a sort of rhapsody
on Latin ideas by Constant Lambert and was sustained by the Libertango
by Astor Piazzolla, the Argentinian composer who from the 1960s raised
the tango to an art form.
Full marks to the CEFC.
