Pascale Delache Feldman and Emmanuel Feldman each have impressive professional resumes individually, but married people everywhere will admire the creativity they produce as a couple when they perform as Duo Cello e Basso. Pascale plays the bass, Emmanuel plays the cello, and on their latest album, Let’s Tango!, they are joined by pianist Victor Cayres to form a musical trio. The result is a spectacular treat, which can be streamed and purchased online – and will soon be available at Good Dog Records and Books.
Tango is not just dance music. In Argentina, it’s a sophisticated musical form incorporating elements of classical music and jazz, and it’s great to listen to even if you have two left feet. Let’s Tango! features a variety of wonderful pieces by mid-twentieth century Argentine composers who were contemporaries of famed short story writer Jorge Luis Borges. (One of them, Piazzolla, even collaborated with Borges on some spoken-word-plus-music recordings.) Listening to the album sweeps the listener away into a new world, with all kinds of remarkable sounds. Was that a violin? No, it’s just the upper reaches of the cello, which one rarely hears. And what are all those thrums and zips and zings? Who knew the bass could do all that?
The Feldmans did a lot of work to adapt many of the pieces they play for their trio of instruments. The crown jewel of the album is their innovative arrangement of Astor Piazzolla’s Four Seasons of Buenos Aires. It’s considered a response to Vivaldi, made by one of the great modernists of the global South. (It is significant that the Four Seasons were not written in the same year, and that summer came first in Piazzolla’s preferred ordering. For more on this and the other pieces, see Emmanuel’s liner notes for Let’s Tango!) Another highlight is Por Una Cabeza by Carlos Gardel, which some people may recognize from the fact that it was used in the Al Pacino film, Scent of A Woman.
The Feldmans are aiming to perform the Four Seasons live in Newton soon, perhaps at the Newton Free Library’s Druker Auditorium. Stay tuned.
