EAST MEETS WEST / Thomas Liauw & Flavio Cucchi Guitar Recital / Review

EAST MEETS WEST

Thomas Liauw & Flavio Cucchi

Duo Guitar Recital

Esplanade Recital Studio

Monday (5 June 2023)

 

Not too long ago, I was asked who Singapore’s notable guitarists were. The names of Kevin Loh, the late-lamented Alex Abisheganaden, Robert Liew (the veteran arts impresario) and Thomas Liauw came up.  Thomas Liauw is best known as the Artistic Director of the Singapore International Guitar Festival, once a perennial event to rival its piano counterpart. Liauw has not performed publicly for some 29 years, thus his return to the stage was much-anticipated.

 

Esplanade Recital Studio was close to sold-out in this duo recital pairing Liauw with Italian guitarist Flavio Cucchi. Opening the evening, the duo could be excused for some rustiness in Vivaldi’s Guitar Concerto in D major (RV.93). Liauw helmed the solo part and Cucchi the accompaniment, and it was not all smooth sailing until the soothing Largo slow movement, which had the most luminous moments. The gigue-like finale saw some effective prestidigitation, closing the work on a high.  

 

Neapolitan composer Ferdinando Carulli’s Nocturne (Op.90 No.1) is in the traditional two movements popular in the early Romantic era, a slow Largo followed by somewhat faster Allegretto. The duo hit some technical snags, and could have provided more contrasts between the two movements, but this still provided undemanding and enjoyable listening clearly appreciated by the audience.

 

Cucchi had more freedom on his own, displaying his mettle in contemporary Italian film composer Stefano Mainetti’s Habanera para Maria and Tango. The music’s sentimentality and gentle rhythmic lilt fell well within his hands, with tricky improvisatory bits coming across winningly. In Argentine tango-meister Astor Piazzolla’s Oblivion, the sense of nostalgia and melancholy was palpable, while the swifter Chau Paris provided a spirited close to the concert’s first half.

 

Liauw was soloist for his arrangements of four iconic Asian songs. Anak by Freddie Aguilar (Philippines) is bittersweet for its portrayal of the parent-child relationship, while Gubahan Ku by Broery Marantika (Indonesia, once Anita Sarawak’s hubby) and Dao by the band Pause (Thailand) were seamlessly joined at the hip. Both songs were sentimental, simple and unadorned, resembling Latin ballads. Finally, The Moon Represents My Heart by Weng Ching-Hsi (Taiwan), the Teresa Teng evergreen, caused a flutter in all but the most resistant listeners.

 

Both Liauw and Cucchi united to close the evening in a Latin-dominated sequence beginning with Brazilian composer Egberto Gismonti’s Agua E Vinho (Water and Wine). The soulful and meditative work with Cucchi carrying the melodic line had the calming effect of wine, bringing out the true essence of saudade, a typically Portuguese feeling of nostalgia and yearning.

 

Arguably the best arrangements were by Cuban Leo Brouwer, of the Beatles’ Fool On The Hill and Penny Lane. The skilful play of counterpoint showed that John Lennon and Paul McCartney clearly knew the Bachian possibilities, a compositional gambit exploited by the duo in their mellow and adroit performance.

 

Continuing on the Latino thread, Cucchi spoke about the “tree of forgetfulness” in Alberto Ginastera’s Milonga, another melancholic song. Its beguiling melody provided solace with the shedding of one’s worries under its shade. The late Argentine guitarist-composer Jorge Morel was a personal friend of both Liauw and Cucchi, and his Danza Brasileira provided much needed contrast with its infectious samba rhythm.

 

The recital programme closed with two Singapore-inspired songs, Hugh Harrison’s Count On Me, Singapore (once a hit in South Asia by way of blatant plagiarism in We Can Achieve, India) and Dick Lee’s ubiquitous Home. Both were very well received, and Liauw and Cucchi remained in Asia for their two encores, Merry-Go-Round and Kiki’s Delivery Service by the much-celebrated anime composer Joe Hisaishi. As the artistry of listening to each other, giving and taking to equal degree, became more evident as the evening drew on, one was sorry it had to end. This enjoyable experience of music-making on two guitars will not be easily forgotten.