Adelaide Cabaret Festival. Artspace. 21 June 2014
Ambre Hammond could not help wondering what she and Marcello Maio were doing at a Cabaret Festival.
She's a classical pianist and he an accordionist, both distinguished concert musicians. This was their first cabaret - invited to perform works of the Argentinian composer Astor Piazzolla in an homage to tango.
Incongruity aside, they were charmed to be in Adelaide and a part of the city's delicious winter celebration.
Hammond speaks for the two of them. Partners in music only, she asserts. But there's an interesting chemistry which hints at more and also less. An interesting history, perhaps. Hammond explains that Marcello has a World Cup affliction and uses him as the brunt of gentle anecdotal jokes in her various patters between songs. She is well-spoken an decidedly engaging. Marcello leaves her to it and does the silent male thing.
But, when they play, they are a the definition of 'complementary'. Both exude high emotion as they throw themselves into the passion of Piazzola. Maio's face contorts and he wraps his body around his instrument, moving at one with its breath. His hand crawls crablike across his keyboard. For all her femininity, Hammond, is a muscular player with huge hands. She rolls and stretches her body across the piano stool, sometimes almost prone. She weighs in over the keyboard, almost kissing it, turning her head to the audience, flicking her beautiful chestnut mane over her shoulder. Both are highly theatrical musicians.
And thus, they work through the Piazzolas of their Oblivion CD, throw in an exquisite piece of Debussy plus a couple of solos. And one realises that their choices have been so melancholic. The theme seems to have been love and loss. Hammond suggests images that can accompany the music - a Portugese fishing port, a dying lover... Not soccer, she reprimands Maio. No, it's steamy, sultry, sad, romantic. When they play Jealousy, the fire of tango sparkles brightly. Ironically, it's a non-Latin composition.
From time to time as they are performing, the strains of Archie Roach reach into their balcony performance space. Hammond pauses and says "We can do this". And they power on. And nothing else matters.
They are an intense and potent pair, an interesting pair. Their musical choices have attracted full houses of Piazzola aficionados and left their audiences fulfilled.
They may not be conventional cabaret fare, but they're a cabaret hit.
Samela Harris
When: Closed
Where: Artspace
Bookings: Closed
