In Ingram Hall:
Celebrating 60 Years with Duo Assad
On February 19th, Vanderbilt’s Ingram Hall was filled in anticipation for a performance by Duo Assad, a rarity for a classical guitar concert. The Duo Assad are a pair of brothers, Sergio and Odair Assad, who were trained by a student of the grandfather of classical guitar, Andres Segovia. They started performing together in the fall of 1965 on a Brazilian TV show, and the pair has made several recordings with well-known artists, including Yo-Yo Ma, James Taylor, and Dave Brubeck. The concert was performed as part of their current tour across America to celebrate their 60 years playing together.
They started off the program with Astor Piazzolla’s Bandoneon and Zita. Bandoneon began with dissonant harmonies that gave way to a flurry of harmonics before transforming into a heroic theme with a blues and Spanish influence. Zita was a blinding fast piece that teetered on falling apart before slowing down to a sweet melody over strummed chords, before speeding back up to the original speeding duet that screeched to a halt at the end with a flurry of percussive hits on the guitar. Between sets, the duo reminisced on stories from throughout their lives together, including details of when they started playing guitar and how it was part of their lives growing up. The next two pieces on the program were Radames Gnattali’s Valsa and Corta-Jaca. Valsa was a waltz that began with fast descending passages that made the piece feel like it was frantically searching for the main melody to begin, and when it found the melody, it sweetened into a beautiful dance with textures that swirled between the two guitars and gave way to energetic movements before settling back down again. Corta-Jaca was a groove-based piece that was as danceable as the waltz, but felt as if the two participants in the dance were continuously trying to outpace each other. Quick scalar passages were passed back and forth while still maintaining a light and fun dancelike quality.
Next, they played a collection of pieces by Sergio Assad called One Week in Rio. Sergio invited us to “spend one week in Rio” with them as they played the piece. It was broken into seven small compositions, each one being dedicated to one day of the week. Pieces like Chácara do Céu on Monday and Parque Lage on Friday brought to mind a serene, picturesque setting and had the same atmosphere as Erik Satie or Claude Debussy. Other pieces, such as Corcovado on Tuesday or Forró de Santa on Thursday, were fast-paced melodic pieces that evoked a nice day in the town instead of overlooking a nice landscape. Afterwards, they played Paulo Bellinati’s Jongo. This piece started with a strong theme that evolved into arpeggiated chords and fast scalar passages that built to a percussive section before going back to the main theme to round off the entire piece.
They then played another piece they had written called Dyens en trois temps, which was dedicated to Roland Dyens. It was split into three parts: The first was influenced by Dyens’ jazz standard arrangements, the second by some French songs, and the third was a mixture of Brazilian music and one of Dyens’ songs. Next were two pieces by Egberto Gismonti. The first, Palhaco, was a ballad that started serene and added a bit of bluesy soloing in the middle before fading back into a relaxing, contrapuntal theme. Baiaco Malandro was a fast-paced piece with the sixteenth note being traded back and forth between the two guitars, which Sergio described as a ping pong match. Fast scalar passages over a nervous tremolo passage gave way to a slower section, which gave a bit of sincerity to the piece before it went back to the nervous energy it had before for the end.
The final piece on the program was a composition by the duo called Tahhiyya li ossoulina. It started with a Middle Eastern influence, with the guitar imitating an oud with glissandos and ornamentation. The theme was constantly reinterpreted with more ornamentation and even played using the harmonics of the guitar. Suddenly, the guitars gave way to a groove that was played at a blinding speed that made use of strumming and percussive guitar techniques before coming to an end with both guitars belting out the main theme. At the end of the concert, the duo came out and played an encore, where Sergio joked that after they stopped playing, Odair was going to play for a bit as a soloist, to which Odair quickly shook his head. Then, during the piece, Sergio walked off while Odair began to play part of Bach’s Partita for Violin No. 3 before they transitioned to a piece they played together on one guitar to great enjoyment.
If you can get the chance to see Duo Assad, go see them. Their tour continues out west for a time until concluding in New York on March 14th on the very stage they started their first performance on 60 years ago. Sadly, if you do not happen to see them on this tour, this is your last chance, as this is the last tour the duo will be playing. However, you can still enjoy the numerous recordings they have put out to date.
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Nathan Malone is working towards a degree in Music Composition studying with Michael Linton, and has minors in Art and Computer Science. Because he was born and raised in Tennessee, he had an early interest in guitar leading to him specializing in classical guitar in college. He spends most of his free time going to see concerts and films.
