Wednesday, February 06, 2019

Les Jeudis culturels: A musical journey with guitarist Thibault Cauvin

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.

No comments:

Post a Comment