Catrin Finch & Aoife Ní Bhriain and Juanjo Corbalán Quartet, Edinburgh review: 'exuberant fusion'
All the colours of the harp were on display at this Edinburgh International Harp Festival concert, writes Jim Gilchrist
Catrin Finch & Aoife Ní Bhriain and Juanjo Corbalán Quartet, George Watson’s College, Edinburgh ★★★★
Saturday night at the 45th Edinburgh International Harp Festival exemplified the gathering’s eclecticism, opening with Latin-American flamboyance as Paraguayan harp maestro Juanjo Corbalán and his quartet paraded into a packed hall. With Lara Barreto on soprano and alto saxophones, Víctor Álvarez on keyboard and melodica and drummer Seba Ramírez, Corbalán led an exuberant fusion of Paraguayan harp music with jazz, their opening number highlighting the potent contrast of bright harp strings and the reedy voicings of Barreto’s soprano sax over rumbustious Latin-American rhythms laid down by piano and drums.
There was a joyful swirl to Fiesta Popular, while sax sang lustily over intensifying rhythms in a samba. Bajo Presión – “High Pressure” – simmered accordingly, harp whirring and cascading, while the audience was cajoled into impromptu vocalising in the ever-popular Pájaro Campana – “The Bell Bird”.
Tonal contrasts, too, as well as potent synergy, epitomise the inspired duo of Welsh harpist Catrin Finch and Irish violinist Aoife Ní Bhriain, both of whom embrace classical and traditional music. Their opening number, Wander, established their beguiling sound world, violin harmonics whistling hauntingly over the delicate rippling and sonorous boom of pedal harp. They stuck largely to repertoire from their Double You album, hence a proliferation of titles commencing with “W”, including Whispers, which developed from pizzicato violin into a profound conversation between the two instruments, and the folk-influenced Why, its harp responses to questioning violin flowing into a reel.
Woven generated feisty riffing on a Locatelli caprice while their album’s other preoccupation – bees – was embodied vividly as Waggle (as in waggle dance) took on a tango strut, its impassioned burst of Astor Piazzolla returning us briefly to the evening’s Latin American opening.
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