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| Guitarist Thibault Cauvin |
The latest installment of the
Embassy of France and the Alliance Française de Manille’s Les Jeudis culturels took the audience on a musical tour around the
world courtesy of French guitarist Thibault Cauvin.
Thibault’s return to Manila after
almost 12 years brought in lovers of French culture and a bunch of guitar
enthusiasts filling the Bernardo Sim Multipurpose Hall of the Alliance Française
de Manille to capacity. The intimate setting was very fitting for a solo guitar
performance with him still so near even to those seated farthest to the stage.
Performing tracks mostly from his latest release Cities II, Thibault put the spotlight on various cities around the world through the music of the guitar. Most of the pieces had discernible national or folk idioms like the sensuous tango of Astor Piazzolla’s Milonga del Angel for Buenos Aires or the baião rhythm in Marco Pereira’s Bate-coxa for Rio. Heading to Tokyo, the traditional Japanese tune Sakura for the koto was given a virtuosic touch via Yuquijiro Yocoh’s Sakura, Theme and Variations.
What really took me by surprise
was Berlin, composed by Thibault’s
brother Jordan Cauvin that was heavily influenced by electronic dance music reminiscent
of the now defunct Love Parade. The surprises kept on coming as cinematic music evoking horses
galloping through the steppes of Oulan Bator was performed in Mathias
Duplessy’s Ulan. Scordatura lent an
exotic sound to Sébastien Vachez’s Raga
du soir as the trip took a stop in Calcutta. For Istanbul, the programmatic
tour de force Koyunbaba by Carlo
Domeniconi started out in a relaxed pastoral mood that came to a grim and
violent end that pushed Thibault technically and offered a bit of tension
musically to an otherwise relaxed affair.
It turned into a family affair
during the encores as Thibault performed ROCKTYPICOVIN
composed by his father Philippe Cauvin and Flots
de l'âme composed by Matthieu Chedid and his brother Jordan as the concert arrived at its final
destination at the beaches of Cap Ferret.
Thibault Cauvin offered a unique
program that showcased a diverse music palette in a very intimate setting. It
was refreshing and quite surprising to hear contemporary guitar performance
that did not include works from Spain. There’s nothing wrong with Spanish
guitar music but it was enriching to have musical horizons widened.
The bar has been set high and I await what cultural event will be on hand at the next edition of Les Jeudis culturels. And for those who missed this concert, may this serve as a lesson to send those RSVP’s as soon as possible since seats are very limited.
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