In May 2018, Omar Massa performed at Hellensmusic Festival together with Markus Däunert (Concertmaster & co-founder of Claudio Abbado’s Mahler Chamber Orchestra), Máté Szücs (1st Viola soloist, Berlin Philharmonic) and Bruno Delepelaire (1st Cello soloist, Berlin Philharmonic). The concert offered a musical journey from the bandoneon’s origins to its stellar role in tango, particularly in Piazzolla’s music.
A live video and audio extracts from the concert can be accessed below:
PROGRAMME
First Half: From Baroque to Piazzolla
Frescobaldi: Toccata No. 7 for Organ from "Secondo Libro di Toccate e Canzone"
Bach: Prelude and Fugue No. 1 from "Eight Little Preludes and Fugues for Organ", BWV 553-560
Vivaldi: Cello Sonata in A minor, RV 43
Corelli: Violin Sonata No. 3, Op. 5
Piazzolla: Ave Maria
Second Half: The Music of Piazzolla
Lo que vendrá, Bruno & Sarah, Calambre, Night Club 1960, Oblivion, Milonga Loca, Café 1930, Adiós Nonino
Omar Massa, bandoneon
Markus Däunert, violin
Máté Szücs, viola
Bruno Delepelaire, cello
Musical arrangements by Omar Massa.
Excerpt from the Birmingham Post (UK) Review:
“Omar Massa enthralled us in music by Frescobaldi and Bach. He drew tones ranging from the wheedling and caressing to the austere (as in a Bach Little Organ fugue, magisterially delivered), and supplied continuo to Markus Däunert, so expressively virtuosic in a Corelli violin sonata, and cellist Bruno Delepelaire bringing varied colouring and attack to a Vivaldi cello sonata. But it is for the Argentinian tango that the bandoneon is most renowned, and in a sequence of works by the great Astor Piazzolla the trio, joined for one number by violist Mate Szücs, metaphorically raised the roof in Massa's brilliant arrangements which brought verve, louche sadness, wit and spectacle to these wonderful creations.”
