ARGENTINE ASSOCIATION OF MUSIC REVIEWERS (ASOCIACIÓN DE CRÍTICOS MUSICALES DE LA ARGENTINA)
Buenos Aires, April 2008.
AWARDS 2007
Argentina Chamber Music Group (Grupo de Cámara Argentino) MORELLO-VILA DUET
Nominated with the Special Excellence Award
LA NACION, October 6, 2007 - Héctor Coda
Mozarteum Cycle Concerts - Gran Rex Theatre (Buenos Aires, Argentina)
After listening to the Morello-Vila duet, one seems to rediscover the definition of pianos as musical instruments. Thus, the instrumental aspect is surpassed by the specific qualitative one: what is strictly musical. Because it is nothing else but music what emanates from the piano when Fernanda Morello and Patricia Vila play in four-hand fashion. If one listens to them attentively, one will rarely realize that the piece is played by two piano players, instead of one. Besides, the program chosen for this musical midday concert is perfectly adequate for the type of musicality they possess and whose secret will not be unveiled by just looking at them playing the piano. The keyboard seems to put out with sonorous generosity the activity of their fingers as they move with penetrating gentleness over it, as it happened with Debussy’s La Petite Suite, in which they exacted accents of extraordinary expressive power.
With unusual ductility, accuracy and subtlety, these piano performers manage to exact from the piano what composers such as Debussy or Ravel set up in their scores. La Petite Suite of the first Debussy allowed the audience to truly appreciate everything that the French composer could try in terms of textures with four hands on the keyboard. The first movement (En Bateau) literally translated the fascination he felt for everything related to the sea, in the vast arpeggios expressed with subtle sound gradation, from the low key range, over which a melody hovers. The rhythmical accuracy in Cortège, of festive character, with the marked accents in the low key, the Menuet passages, in which the melodies are doubled into décimas or the astonishing ballet of the closing, in which the keyboard became an elastic surface with their brilliant turns of basic joy. In Jeux d’enfants, Op. , by Georges Bizet, the interpreters very adequately approached the world of children and enhanced one of their own main features: the capability for color. In the first one, L’Escarpolette, the rhythm of the swing got intertwined in a lyric fashion with remembrance until fading away. But, it is in La Poupée that the performers managed to recreate an atmosphere of tender remembrance of the doll of the old days of childhood, still alive in the heart of the imaginary girl.
The playful genius of Poulenc, always loyal to a simple aesthetics, immediately changed the tone of this exquisite chamber music session. The clear and colored, accurate and dissonant chords of his Sonata for Piano (1918), emerged, vital and energetic, in the Prélude, with their ostinato, and climaxed in the meteoric rhythm of the Finale. Although not very much acquainted with Spanishness, Ravel was always seduced by Spain. An evidence of this are his Alborada del Gracioso, his opera L'Heure Espagnole, and his Rhapsodie Espagnole, that Morello and Vila played in Ravel’s four-hand version. This transcription recreated the silky and dry sonority that are characteristic of Ravel. The Prélude a la Nuit had all the obsessive mystery of the four initial notes, with a faded tone, and the sound subtleties reached very good levels in terms of nuances. In the Malagueña False, in the sensual rhythmic cadence of the Habanera and in the vehement final Feria, of joyful color, there was gaiety and brilliance in the high pitched range. Not included in the program, the duet played the splendid Ma Mère l’Oie.
LA NACION, July 10, 2007 - Héctor Coda
Concerto for Two Pianos in D Minor, by Francis Poulenc
The prestigious duet - Patricia Vila and Fernanda Morello - played the version of Poulenc’s D Minor Concerto for two pianos and orchestra, that the composer recreated for a piano duet …this splendid concert, in which a more solid art prevails, although there is also ironic humor, agility and freshness, very well transmitted by Morello – Vila.
A perfect synchronization and rhythmic accuracy, a virtuoso glow, a dynamic and accurate balance and a spirit not devoid of occasional tenderness, accurately reflected the depth of comprehension both performers showed in approaching Poulenc’s versatile style. The larguetto reflected the charm of a melodic line that does not exclude classical reminiscences, as well as the abrupt transitions of themes with strong local color.
Full brilliance and virtuosity… although not neglecting the sound quality in the fortissimo, the allegro molto had all the vivacity of a dazzling final
EL DIARIO DE PILAR, October 31, 2006
Dazzling Performance by Fernanda Morello and Patricia Vila.
They presented “Four-Hand Piano" in the 2006 Cycle of the Pilar Golf.
This was the most astonishing performance in the 2006 Concert Cycle organized by Pilar Golf and the applause and ovation of the audience thus proved it. With a repertoire that focused on the works of French composers (Debussy, Ravel, Poulenc and Bizet) and from the very same keyboard, last weekend, performers Fernanda Morello and Patricia Vila presented the cycle “Four-Hand Piano” in the Club de Campo concert hall, 60 km away from Buenos Aires.
This unique and attractive musical proposal is the seventh event of this season, that will end on November 18, with the presentation of the Camerata Bariloche.
Talent and Glamour: Since 2000, artists Fernanda Morello and Patricia Vila have worked together and are considered as one of the most prestigious chamber music duets in Argentina and Latin America. All this musical quality and experience were reflected in the concert they offered in Pilar Golf.
The delicacy and subtlety of Debussy’s Petite Suite were followed by the charm and expressivity of the six numbers of Bizet’s Jeux D’enfants, Op. 22, which culminated in the exultant Le Bal, that capped the selection of the first part of the concert. By this time, the audience had already been captured by the talent and glamour of the duet.
With Poulenc’s Sonata for Piano (Four Hands) the duet opened the second part of the concert and it was then that the energy of these artists showed their versatility and technical command at their best. But the most attractive point came with Ravel’s Spanish Rhapsody, transcribed by the composer into a four-hand piano concerto. An extremely complex piece, that Morello and Vila performed with firmness and seduction by disentangling all the lights and shades depicted by the author in each one of the movements of his famous Bolero, to end up with the harmonic and unrestrained richness of the final piece, Feria. Acclaimed by the audience, the artists performed an encore, The Fairy Garden, from Ravel’s Ma Mère l’Oie.
Four hands and two piano players that sound like one. That was the promise the Pilar Golf organization admirably carried out in the 2006 Concert Cycle, a continuation of the variety and excellence of its two previous concert seasons.
EL CORDILLERANO – July 17, 2006 – Adrián Moyano
PATRICIA VILA and FERNANDA MORELLO
DISTURBING BEAUTY EMANATING FROM TWO PIANOS
The performers explored a scarcely known musical universe: the works of great composers for two pianos or for one piano and four hands. Debussy, Shostakovich, Poulenc and Ravel in outstanding facets of their vast creations.
(…) until now, originality has been the choice of Patricia Vila and Fernanda Morello, and the results have been outstanding. They make up a duet of two pianos, perhaps the least known chamber music arrangement. The results are obvious: As we said in our previous review, their record of Shostakovich and Debussy’s complete works has entered into History, not only for having been awarded the Gardel 2006 prize to the best classical music piece, but also for having been included in the EMI Classic international seal. This makes Morello and Vila the first Argentine artists to access the prestigious seal with an entirely local production. Had they chosen the vast one-piano existing repertoire, their achievements would have been different. Not an easy task.
To open the first part of their performance in the city of Bariloche, the artists interpreted Lindaraja, by Debussy, a work in which impressionistic colors are combined with a certain tortuous quality. Patricia Vila had warned us: “It’s not easy moving from Debussy to Shostakovich and the reverse.” This contrast became clear when the first notes of Shostakovich's Suite Op. 6 were heard: impact, depth, joy and tragedy, reminiscences of the East or of Moorish Spain, elegance and vertigo.
No, no complacency whatsoever. What ghosts was Debussy expelling as he composed En Blanc et Noir? Passages that sound very modern, subtle atmospheres that are so delicate that they immediately disintegrate… Somber passages that leave room for lively unpredictable rhythms.
No. The performers are not still. There’s no room for stillness here, yet. the duet manages to get around the danger it decided to face.
For the closing, a work by Poulenc: Capriccio d´après Le Bal Masqué. Just so… an authentic caprice. A two-piano chat, a conversation that, being so infrequent, insistently monopolizes the attention of the audience. It was only in the out-of-program interpretation that relaxation, self-indulgence and tranquility arrived: Ravel’s Fairy Garden, a four-hand and one-piano performance, whose destinies were commanded by Patricia Vila. A nostalgic farewell that not only closed the presentation: it is also the last track in "4 Manos” (Four Hands), the first record of this solid duet. Music and format that, in those hands, concentrate sensations: disturbing beauty.
REVISTA CANTABILE - May- June 2006 – Patricia Casañas
“A BLOND AND A BRUNETTE” (STORY)
Fernanda Morello and Patricia Vila, two brilliant Argentine piano players, joined their individual talents to form, for almost six years, a duet of international level. Having been awarded with the Carlos Gardel Prize some days ago, for their last record, they discussed on their award and their projects with Cantabile.
AMADEUS – April 2006
“A NEW GARDEL AWARD FOR MUSIC”
Shortly before closing this edition of our magazine, the Gardel Awards were announced for record productions presented during 2005, including the statuette for the best classical music record. On this occasion, this award was granted to Fernanda Morello and Patricia Vila, a duet of piano players, for their record “Dos pianos” (Two Pianos), with works by Claude Debussy (En Blanc et Noir, Lindaraja) and Dimitri Shostakovich (Concertino Op. 94, Tarantella la Suite Op. 6)
[…] Apart from the contribution made by each one of these records, the award granted to the Morillo-Vila Diet was well deserved. Not only because of the quality of the interpretation, of the recording and of the CD presentation, but also because it is unusual for a multinational record company such as EMI to run the risk of making a product of these characteristics. It must be pointed out that, unlike its two most relevant competitors (i.e. records by Baremboim and Argerich, edited by Warner Music and by Deutsche Grammophon, respectively), the Morello and Vila record is an exclusively made Argentine production while the two productions mentioned above, without detriment to their undeniable merits and to the award regulations, are records produced abroad, and cannot be conceived as capable of competing, on equal terms, with Argentine record productions. Fortunately, the members of the voting committee also acknowledged this
GARDEL AWARDS 2006
Nominated for the Best Classical Music Album:
Aldo Antognazzi
Alexander Panizza
Camerata Bariloche
Daniel Barenboim – West Eastern Divan Orchestra
Marta Argerich – Mischa Maisky
Fernanda Morello – Patricia Vila
Winner of the Best Classical Music Album:
Fernanda Morello and Patricia Vila “2 Pianos” Debussy and Shostakovich
AMADEUS – January / February 2006
PIANO SOLO I: BETWEEN LIGHTS AND SHADOWS
Whether we like it or not, it is completely infrequent for an Argentine classical artist to edit a record through any of the multinational seals present in Argentina. There are scarce exceptions to this rule, such as Martha Argerich, Daniel Baremboin and Manfredo Kraemer recordings, but these artists are actually present in the international catalogues. It is their performance abroad what keeps them on the market and, in this context, the fact of having been born in South America is merely incidental.
That is why, the fact that EMI should edit a record of the two-piano duet formed by Fernanda Morello and Patricia Vila in Argentina should be specially pointed out. Because it breaks down the tacit rule mentioned before and opens a new dimension for our artists. And, last but not least, the repertoire chosen by these two magnificent interpreters is not exactly the most hackneyed one […].
REVISTA CANTABILE – Claudio Ratier - November-December 2005
“LA DISCOTECA: We recommend”
It is not frequent that such a relevant international seal should edit a work of Argentine interpreters, but, now and then (fortunately) this rule is broken. In this case, Fortune has touched Fernanda Morello and Patricia Vila, two piano players who have been working for some years on a continuous basis and with a low profile, and who have been awarded an important recognition and now have a relevant and well-deserved position among interpreters. In 2001, in this Section, we commented on their independent production "4 Manos" (Four Hands). Now, it’s our turn to comment on this work, devoted to two-piano pieces by XX Century composers. By Claude Debussy, En Blanc et Noir and Lindaraja, and by Dmitri Shostakovich, Concertino Op. 94, Tarantella and Suite Op. 6. Not only do they offer a scarcely broadcasted repertoire, but they do so in a simply admirable way, attaining unit and a level of consistency absolutely necessary for achieving results that are extremely outstanding, thanks to their individual mastery and their mutual understanding. This launching is an extremely important landmark for a duet that will surely continue attaining important achievements.
PÁGINA/12 – December 7, 2005
2 PIANOS - MORELLO – VILA
EMI, 2005
Fernanda Morello and Patricia Vila make up an excellent piano duet that, in this recording, performs an extremely interesting program. En Blanc et Noir, by Debussy and the Suite Op. 6, the Concertino Op. 94 and the Tarantella by Dmitri Shostakovich. With unusual empathy between them and loyal to the styles of these pieces, these piano performers achieve an extremely beautiful chamber music record. On the other hand, the fact that a large company such as EMI should start taking Argentine interpreters into account (this had already been done with local jazz) is not uneventful.
LA NACION – Juan Carlos Montero – December 1, 2005
Classical Records
MORELLO and VILA
Debussy and Shostakovich
Pieces for two pianos, played by Fernanda Morello and Patricia Vila. By Debussy, Lindaraja and En Blanc et Noir. By Shostakovich, Concertino Op. 94, Tarantella and Suite Op. 6.
Recorded in the ION studios, this repertoire was launched to the local market as a CD with unusual characteristics. An excellent level of the piano duet formed by Fernanda Morello and Patricia Vila, a scarcely conventional program and good sound recording level are the merits of the resulting product. Since 2000, these Argentine piano performers have formed a stable duet and have specialized in a vast repertoire for two pianos and four hands. In this fashion, they have successfully performed in numerous cycles, among which we should point out the Festival de Música de Buenos Aires 2003, in the Colon Theatre.
Even though the debut of the record of the duet took place in 2001, with the “4 Manos” CD (Four Hands), in which they performed pieces by Debussy, Ravel and Bizet and which turned into the 2002 best-selling academic music record in Argentina, this new record, containing the complete works for two pianos by Debussy and Shostakovich, is undoubtedly an artistic attraction, not only because it covers a panoply of extremely beautiful and scarcely broadcasted pieces (in fact, the repertoire for two pianos is very limited in Argentina, where the number of pianos is not too high), but also because of the sound outreach assured by the contract signed by these performers last August, that determined that the record shall be distributed on an international and national level under the EMI Classics seal.
From the musical standpoint, the chance of recording nearly the entire repertoire for two pianos of two of the major XIX century music composers is extremely interesting and valuable: the first one, Debussy’s En blanc et noir (1915) and Lindaraja (1901), and the second one, Shostakovich’s most relevant pieces of his heritage, although not the only ones, Concertino Op. 94, Tarantella and the Suite Op. 6. And in all these inspiring and very pleasurable pieces, Fernanda Morello and Patricia Vila deliver pure virtuosity and exquisite expressive sensitivity to the point that listening their CD is an infinitely pleasurable and enriching experience as a marvelous musical world is unveiled.
LA NACIÓN – Sebastián Espósito – December 9, 2005
Launching of Music in CD:
Fernanda Morello and Patricia Vila
DEBUSSY & SHOSTAKOVICH
In 2002, following the promising debut with “4 Manos” (Four Hands), the recording of a CD containing works by Ravel, Bizet and Debussy, Fernanda Morello and Patricia Vila launch a new CD: “Claude Debussy and Dmitri Shostakovich Complete Works for Two Pianos”. This edition contains comments by Daniel Varacalli Costas and is, together with L’Atelier, by the String Quartet, one of the first editions by Argentine performers for this seal.
LA NUEVA PROVINCIA, Bahia Blanca, November 29, 2002.
“The Province Symphony Orchestra Puts Two Pianos on the Scene”
With soloists Patricia Vila and Fernanda Morello as guest performers and conducted by the orchestra conductor, José María Ulla, the Province Symphony Orchestra will play a repertoire with pieces by Rossini, Poulenc and Tchaikovsky.
With the remarkable title of being responsible for “4 Manos” (Four Hands), the best-selling classical music record in Argentina of these days, piano players Patricia Vila and Fernanda Morello will play a unique musical agenda tonight: for the first time in its history, the Province Symphony Orchestra will offer a concert with two pianos on stage.
In fact, it is the Concert for Two Pianos and Orchestra, by Francis Poulenc, one of the three pieces that will form part of tonight’s attractive program. The concert begins as 9:30 p.m., at the Teatro Municipal.
3 PUNTOS – Jorge Grubissich
“Bizet, Debussy, Ravel. Piano pieces for four hands.”
(…) Patricia Vila and Fernanda Morello have chosen three pieces originally composed for four hands. This does not only show that the concert will carry the imprint of three representatives of the French Impressionism, but also, that this is not merely a performance for amateurs. This aspect is not the only pleasant surprise. Besides, the audience will be surprised by the original versions (and, perhaps, the most intimate ones) of works that were later made famous in orchestra versions, such as Ma Mère l’Oie, by Ravel, or some numbers of Jeux d’enfants, by Ravel. There will be a third piece, Debussy’s attractive Petite Suite. And, if the proposal does not seem challenging from the instrumental perspective, it is in fact challenging from the expressive one. The challenge of delivering emotions to each area of the piano, without detriment to balance, is met by these Argentine piano performers and is excelled with a level of success that deserves being enjoyed.
LA NACION - November 25, 2001 – René Vargas Vega
“Four Hands””
Having graduated with honors from the schools of music Manuel de Falla and López Buchardo, Fernanda Morello and Patricia Vila have undertaken the challenge of performing the works for four hands composed by Debussy, Bizet and Ravel. The first impression is a surprise. And the surprise is caused by the musicality, the blend of different styles, the minute accuracy in the attacks and the intense or subtle expression in the articulations in the scores chosen by the performers.
From the precious filigrees in En Bateau and the expansive, playful and elegant Cortège, by Claude Debussy, to the elaborate and clear strokes in L´Escarpollete, and to the delicacy and tenderness of Petit Mari, petite femme, by Georges Bizet or, finally the intimist and peaceful atmosphere of the Pavane de la Belle au Bois Dormant and the subtleties of the tapping motions in Petit Poucet, by Maurice Ravel, the four hands are united in each stage in their intention, in the dynamics, and in the breaking apart of the articulations.
The ludic, luminous, suggestive, arcane features are all present in the splendid versions by Vila-Morello.
LA NACION - October 2, 2001
“Local Classical Interpreters with a Very High Level of Performance”
For Argentine performers of classical music, the road to a record is destined to almost inevitably end up in self-management. But, what strikes us is that, notwithstanding, month after month, new classical records by very outstanding Argentine performers are delivered to La Nación.
This is the case of the duet formed by the young piano players Patricia Vila and Fernanda Morello, who are presenting their carefully edited CD with pieces for piano and four hands by Bizet, Debussy and Ravel.
REVISTA CANTABILE 2001 – Claudio Ratier
“Four Hands”
Productions made with great effort and without any financial support from record companies may give us very pleasant surprises. This first CD launched by the duet formed by Patricia Vila and Fernanda Morello, with piano pieces for four hands by French authors, was presented by the end of August in the theater La Scala de San Telmo and are a valuable contribution to the not-always-well-treated local production. The value is present in the interpretations, that transmit a close comprehension of each composer, a good rapport between both players and the choice of the repertoire.
With a remarkable penchant for French music, the performers included Debussy’s famous and exquisite Petite Suite, five children pieces from Ma Mère l’Oie, by Ravel, and a rare piece by Bizet, Jeux d’Enfants, Op. 22. These are twelve brief pieces by this composer, renowned mainly for composing a couple of operas and some orchestra compositions. These piano pieces belong to a very personal romanticism that announces the impressionistic music period. Besides, combining them on the program with pieces by Debussy and Ravel is a good choice. In fact, the best results in the performance of these two interpreters can be appreciated in Ravel’s five pieces in the repertoire.