Hémisphères

Description

Two to make one, the Frenchman Guillaume Latil and the Brazilian Matheus Donato have married one’s cello and the other’s cavaquinho. This is the meaning of the title of their joint album, Hémisphères, whose beauty springs from the intertwining of the strings. The duo was born on neutral ground, neither really jazz nor really choro, where improvisation meets contemporary music adorned with chamber colors. But it takes talent and hard work to harmonize the cello, haloed with prestige in Beethoven or Dvorak, with the high notes of the cavaquinho, a small guitar through which the Brazilian people express their feelings and sufferings. Playing on this contrast, Guillaume Latil and Matheus Donato do not merge but add up by alternating original compositions and covers of Schumann, Pixinguinha, and the Argentine pianist Carlos Aguirre. While draping their virtuosity under a contemplative veil, they achieve this feat: to produce, through two instruments from distant sources, a music that flows from its own source.