Reviewed by Ian Phillips. By Galatea Quartet, Sony Music Australia 2018.
And now for something completely different.
The Galatea Quartet hail from Zurich in Switzerland and they are often touring in South America where they have a large fan base.
During one of their tours they came up with the idea of transcribing original Argentinian tangos for string quartet.
The four musicians talked composers/arrangers such as Pablo Fraguela and Tomas Nine into being involved in the project and it didn’t take long before 15 tangos had been transcribed for four string instruments.
Most of us associate Spain with the tango but Argentinian tangos are legendary, especially from the ‘golden age’ in the 30s and 40s, and it is from this period that most of the tracks come.
I’m not sure exactly what it was that attracted me to this album, it’s certainly not my usual fare, but the theatrical side of me found it enthralling.
I have used similar music in many shows I’ve directed over the years, probably because there is so much drama, vibrancy and emotion in it.
I can’t comment on the merits of particular tracks but I can say that I found the disc particularly appealing and enjoyable.
The playing is superb and I will salt the album away among my limited selection of Russian, gypsy, and Bulgarian music for possible future reference and use.
