Classical Review: Enjoyable return of the Cavatina Duo to STL

This past Saturday night (January 18) at Salem United Methodist Church in Frontenac, the Cavatina Duo, the Chicagoland-based wife-and-husband team of Spanish flutist Eugenia Moller and Bosnian guitarist Denis Azabagic, gave a recital as part of the St. Louis Classical Guitar concert series, to an audience of ~100.  The Cavatina Duo are no strangers to St. Louis, as they had previously performed in the old St. Louis Classical Guitar Society series back in November 2014.  Moreover, Mr. Azabagic has extended family in the area, to whom he gave a shout-out from the stage at the concert’s start.  That air of relaxed bonhomie informed his spoken introductions to several of the program’s selections.

The concert began in Baroque-era France with Marin Marais (1656-1728), and selections from his 32 variations on a 15^th century Iberian song known as “La Folia”, titled here “Les Folies d’Espagne”, fitting the backgrounds of both Marais and Ms. Moller.  The program notes didn’t mention the specific variations or the exact number, but presumably it’s the same group as featured on their 2020 Bridge Records album “Folias and Fantasias”, about 18 minutes of music.  The main melodic line resided with Ms. Moller’s flute, and the selection featured a fine variety of tempo and mood, saving the high-flying fireworks toward the end.  The next selection jumped three centuries to a contemporary work by the Bulgarian composer Atanas Ourkouzounov (born 1970), his ‘Râga “Ibriama”’, composed very recently (2017-2018), and dedicated to the Cavatina Duo.  Ms. Moller took over spoken program notes duties here, first speaking very touchingly of how she didn’t feel up to introducing the Marais work, because it would have reminded her of the loss of family members in recent years, and then introducing the Ourkouzounov work with its fusion of Indian and Romani influences, and curious meters such as 11/8.  She also mentioned that the work was “only 8 minutes” long, as if to address general qualms about “modern music”.  No apology was needed, though, as the more harmonically ‘spicy’ passages were quite interesting, at least to this listener.  It’s a single-movement work that seems to fall into three sections, beginning in a slower tempo, in a somewhat lamenting mood, very effectively written.  About 1/3 of the way through, the pace picks up, with what sounds like the 11/8 section and rhythms to which Ms. Moller and the program note insert alluded.  The works ends up-tempo, but not necessarily upbeat.

The first half closed with another contemporary work, by the American composer David Leisner (born 1952), his Dances in the Madhouse (1982) in four movements.  The work’s inspiration was the 1917 lithograph “Dance in a Madhouse” by the American artist George Bellows (1882-1925).  Looking at various figures in the lithograph (which was projected on a large screen above the artists during the performance), the four movements are titled ‘Tango Solitaire’, ‘Waltz for the Old Folks’, ‘Ballad for the Lonely’, and ‘Samba!’.  The first section’s tango vibe leaned quirky, with the guitar providing the main pulse, and a notable flute solo later on, with an up-in-the-air unresolved ending.  The second-section waltz was on the chill side in its mood, with the flute again providing the main melodic line.  The third section’s ‘lonely’ aspect involved Ms. Moller turning her back to the audience, so that it was a more visual than sonic depiction of ‘loneliness’.  The fourth movement was where Mr. Leisner asked the guitarist to tap and rap the instrument for percussive effect.  Curiously, this section’s overall pulse didn’t feel particularly “samba”-esque, for those familiar with authentic Brazilian samba, or even ballroom dance samba.  The work had a slightly throwaway, abrupt ending.

The second half began with Mr. Azabagic alone, for a well-played rendition of “Capricho Arabe” by Spanish composer Francisco Tárrega (1852-1909), Tárrega’s greatest hit and a staple of classical guitarists.  Mr. Azabagic acknowledged the latter when he said that “I’m sure everybody knows this piece”.  The next section brought the concert’s third contemporary composer, the Argentinean composer Máximo Diego Pujol (born 1957), his “Suite Buenos Aires”, also in four sections, “Pompeya”, “Palermo”, “San Telmo” and “Microcentro”.  The shade of Astor Piazzolla appears in the first section, as kind of the third pressing of his music.  Like in the Leisner work, Sr. Pujol’s second section here has a more relaxed feel, fitting the “residential area” status of the Palermo neighborhood, where, in all honesty, the melodic material was OK, but not very distinctive, at least to me.  The tempo picked up in the third movement, which ironically had much more of a “samba” feel compared to the fourth section of the Leisner, complete with finger-percussion moments on the guitar here as well.  Notable also were several passages in the third section where the guitar gets solo moments.  The last section depicts the business district of Buenos Aires, and switches between triplet-rhythm-like sections and sections more in 2 or 4, perhaps to represent the “hum of business” there.  Ms. Moller said in her spoken intro that she has never visited Buenos Aires, and quipped that anyone in the audience who has been there should tell her later how well the music depicts the city.

The concert closed with the ‘Fantaisie Brillante sur des thèmes de Carmen’ by the French composer and flutist François Borne (1840-1920), one of Borne’s very few surviving works (the program note claimed this as “his only surviving work”), and one of many takes on tunes from Georges Bizet’s opera Carmen.  Borne started with the opera’s “fate” motif (heard first in the opera after the prelude), and waited to get to the really big hits, including the ‘Habañera’ (with several variations), but rendered in a different key from the original, as well as the “Seguidilla” (itself with florid variations) and the “Toréador Song” that return to the original keys.  Ms. Moller even adopted a “Carmen pose” at one point during the music.  No encore followed, but the audience seemed well satisfied, and the program as it stood was certainly a workout for the duo.

The Cavatina Duo played throughout with assurance and with their virtuosity worn lightly, where they very much seemed to be enjoying the venue’s performing space.  Mr. Azabagic quipped at the outset that they were looking forward to enjoying home-cooked Bosnian food with family and friends the next day.  With this concert well worth risking the winter roads for, they certainly earned it.