WEATHERING THE STORM

Violinist Karen Gomyo’s new album, dedicated to Astor Piazzolla and recorded during the Covid-19 pandemic, was a profound and personal project for all involved, writes Rita Fernandes

Tango isn’t what comes to mind when picturing the gang-ridden New York City of the 1920s. It was, however, the city that nuevo tango composer Astor Piazzolla called home for most of his childhood. ‘It has a fighting spirit,’

Japanese–Canadian violinist Karen Gomyo explains, referring to both the city and Piazzolla’s music. Both have a special place in the violinist’s heart. She began her studies at the Juilliard School aged eleven and became deeply attached to the city. As for Piazzolla’s music, Gomyo recounts, ‘It was when I was 14 that my mother came home with a stack of Piazzolla CDs and said, “You have to listen to these!” My mother was not a musician, so for her to come home and say this was memorable.’

The album’s original plan had included Pablo Ziegler – once Piazzolla’s pianist – and bandoneon player Héctor del Curto, both of whom Gomyo had already worked with extensively. With Covid-19 rendering the necessary travel impossible, a new plan was drafted: join forces with string players from the French Orchestre national des Pays de la Loire for an orchestral arrangement by Gidon Kremer of Piazzolla’s Four Seasons of Buenos Aires. The rest of the programme grew organically from there. ‘I drove down to France from Germany with a friend for the recording in June 2020. It was on that journey that I discovered Stephanie Jones through some of her recordings on YouTube’ –

Jones being the Australian guitarist with whom Gomyo performs the album’s second work, Histoire du Tango. As for the Tango Etudes, which finish off the album, Gomyo says, ‘I knew them well, so I felt it would be the right to include these on the CD’.

IRÈNE ZANDEL

‘WE WERE COMING OUT OF A VERY CONFUSING LOCKDOWN AND IMMEDIATELY BONDED THROUGH OUR DESIRE TO PUT OUR BEST INTO THE PROJECT’

The album’s programme is an interesting mix. On one hand it was dictated by practical considerations, but on the other, it stemmed from Gomyo’s own discoveries along the way. It is almost as if a certain freedom was found within a now-restricted world – something Gomyo also relates to Piazzolla’s music: ‘His genius as a bandoneon player was very much down to his unyielding sense of rhythm, which creates a very strong structure. Within it he finds this freedom –a freedom that is informed by the emotional context.

‘Piazzolla rarely improvised, so it is important to know how far you can push this and the style of the liberties he takes,’ Gomyo says of her limited improvisation on the album. She explains that improvisation in Piazzolla is not n’importe quoi (‘whatever’). The use of her native French serves as another reminder of the various parallels between Gomyo and Piazzolla. The latter lived in New York, Buenos Aires and Paris, while Gomyo was born in Japan, grew up in Montreal, studied in New York and now lives in Berlin, so it is not surprising that multiculturalism also plays a large part in her love for the composer’s music. ‘It is a mix of classical music, jazz, synagogue music and many more styles. It has a European sensibility that we gravitate towards. It is familiar, yet distant,’ she explains.

Familiar, yet distant. This can also describe Gomyo’s experience of recording the album. ‘It was my first time meeting the orchestra, and of course in a situation like this you always wonder how it’s going to work out. But because we were coming out of a universally confusing lockdown, I felt that we immediately bonded through a deep desire to put our best into the project.’Social distancing was mandatory, and although this is a familiar sight to us now, it was not yet the norm in June 2020 when the sessions took place. About the restrictions, Gomyo says, ‘We had to find our sound together when we were spaced out. A lot of new elements gave it an unprecedented freshness.’

Gomyo records Piazzolla’s Four Seasons of Buenos Aires with musicians from Orchestre national des Pays de la Loire in June 2020

THORE BRINKMANN AND HANS KIPFER

For The Four Seasons the string orchestra was positioned in two semicircles: five violinists in the front and five in the back, with the other instruments placed sporadically throughout. Gomyo played the conductor, using her expressive body language to lead the players. When recording, the spontaneity that comes with playing to an audience can be lost.

But Gomyo took this as a blessing in disguise and used the opportunity to express the music’s sensual and physical nature by facing the orchestra. As for interpretative choices, Gomyo decided on certain ornamentations and improvisational liberties early on to make the whole process smoother. Rather than limiting the sense of spontaneity, this in fact lent itself well to Gomyo’s personal understanding of Piazzolla’s sense of structure.

Gomyo and Jones recorded Histoire du Tango, as well as the solo etudes, in a church in Berlin in August 2020 – as opposed to the French orchestra hall used for The Four Seasons. ‘Violin and guitar together produce quite a delicate sound, so to have the church acoustic to play with was nice. Similarly, for the solo pieces it was beautiful to have some feedback around me,’ says Gomyo. The more intimate setting also allowed her to explore more fully Piazzolla’s writing for the violin. She explains that for Piazzolla, the violin is a ‘voice of femininity and tenderness, yet also percussive. A lot can be explored on the violin: it is a multidimensional instrument.’ On the other hand, ‘when you’re playing with an orchestra, you don’t want an acoustic that’s too boomy. You want clarity and to hear the basses; otherwise you take away the percussive quality’. The album’s mixing was performed by Hans Kipfer, an audio engineer with whom Gomyo had already worked on her previous albums. ‘I trusted the label and it was a harmonious process’, she says of the collaboration.

Having been the catalyst for so many global difficulties, could the Covid-19 pandemic really trigger the creation of something good? For Gomyo, the answer is yes. As she makes clear, recording Piazzolla’s raw music in an increasingly confusing world was a profound experience for all concerned. From New York and Paris to Buenos Aires and Mar del Plata, Piazzolla absorbed much of the 20th century’s kaleidoscope of musical movements, styles and trends. He learned from Nadia Boulanger, studied Bach to Bartók, frequented jazz clubs and revolutionised tango, not to mention living through 1920s New York, the Second World War and an Argentinian dictatorship. But at his simplest, he was a wonderful musician, who created honest music and touched many along the way. Gomyo’s experience of recording the album is not so different.

‘It was wonderful to come together after being home for months and to be with fellow human beings and musicians. And now we have a recording to show for that beautiful experience and memory.’

WORKS Piazzolla The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires. Histoire du Tango. Tango Etudes for solo violin nos.3–5 ARTISTS Karen Gomyo (vn) Stephanie Jones (gtr) Orchestre national des Pays de la Loire RECORDING VENUE Cité des Congrès, Nantes, France (The Four Seasons); Kulturkirche Nikodemus, Berlin, Germany (duet and etudes)