Armonia Duo
Usher Hall
Live Music Now Scotland each year presents a series of morning concerts in the Usher Hall, providing an opportunity for some of the best young musicians in Scotland to perform in public. Today we have two postgraduate students from the Conservatoire in Glasgow. The Conservatoire was recently ranked number three in the world, so there is a very strong possibility their students will be of high quality. We are not disappointed today by the Armonia Duo, which is comprised of a young Cuban violinist Eddy Betancourt and Scottish accordionist Valerie Barr from Wishaw. Both are Masters‘ students at the Conservatoire. The combination of violin and accordion is unusual, even in Scotland, where the accordion is more likely to be found in Scottish traditional music or country dance bands. However, in today's concert the pairing worked really well, the accordion often providing the base for the violin to take the melody; in the hands of these skilled young musicians it sounded great.
Their programme of music was also a great choice, offering a wide variety of music and allowing both musicians to demonstrate the strengths of their instruments. The programme began with Franz Waxman's Carmen Fantasie, based on Bizet's Carmen and composed for the 1946 movie Humoresque, for which Waxman received an Oscar nomination. Waxman was a great film composer and he really captured the essence of Bizet's opera in the music, which was originally composed for violin and orchestra; here the accordion takes the orchestra's part! Eddy Betancourt brings the colour and vitality of Bizet's music to life and Valerie Barr provides a very full accordion backing.
The concert continues with a work by Bach, his violin sonata in E minor BWV 1023, which places the violin centre stage and usually is accompanied by a viola da gamba and harpsichord, but here of course by the accordion. In this work Eddy Betancourt displayed his virtuosic skill on the violin, initially in solo form, but later with Valerie Barr coming in to provide a good backing. The next work is a set of Romanian Dances by Bela Bartok, originally based on folk tunes Bartok collected from Transylvania and composed in 1915. Here the interplay between the violin and accordion is perfect as they are both very much folk instruments.
The next work is Ravel's Tzigane (gypsy), which was written in 1924 for a Hungarian violinist and reflects the gypsy music which was popular in Hungary and in Paris at that time. Again originally composed for violin and piano, and again Valerie Barr's accordion providing a good substitute. The final work in the concert perhaps reflects Eddy Betancourt’s Latin American roots. It is La Muerte del Angel by South America's most famous composer, Astor Piazzolla. It was originally composed in 1965 to accompany a play Tango del Angel, which is about an angel who tries to heal broken human spirits in Beunos Aires and ends up dying in a knife fight. Playing the melancholy music of the tango, the violin and accordion perfectly bring the spirit of Latin America to the Usher Hall to end the concert.
The young musicians got a warm reception from the 100+ audience in the choir stalls of the Usher Hall, who had paid only £3 for an excellent hour of music by two very talented young musicians. I'm sure we will be hearing much more of them in the future. They plan to continue to play together whilst finishing their studies in Glasgow and on this evidence they have a bright future.
