What creates the winners? Is it the performers or the song? In today's video, I think it is the performers. Maria Grigoryeva and Natalia Potapenko, on violin and accordion, respectively, perform here as "Duo Consonance". The piece they play in this video, Meditango, was a commercially driven composition written to fill up an LP that would sell. Like almost all of Piazzolla's works, it is good music but it doesn't make my list of the 30 most frequently played Piazzolla compositions. I have heard it before, of course, but I don't think I ever really listened to it before this video. And the reason I listened this time, I believe, is the musicality that these two very talented women bring to the piece. The notes are technically perfect but it is the way the notes are played - the micropauses, the subtle dynamics within phrases, and the marvelous synchronization - that really captured this listener.
If you follow Maria's link above you will discover she is a composer and a competitively well recognized violinist who also is developing an interest in electronic music. Please, Maria, don't stray too far from your performance skills, you have a rare gift. Natalia, the other half of Duo Consonance, is from Saint-Petersburg, Russia and graduated from the Rimsky-Korsakov conservatory of music where she studied under accordionist masters V.Zaviruha and O. Sharov. She plays not only in classical venues but in an "Extreme Girl Folk" band called Iva Nova. I have sampled Iva Nova's music and will affirm it is not Piazzolla.
Duo Consonance has one other video on YouTube: Oblivion. It is also good but did not speak to me the way Meditango did. I certainly hope Duo Consonance have more Piazzolla on the way.
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To learn more about Piazzolla videos, visit the Piazzolla Video site.
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