Music / Maria Eugenia Nieva and Andrew Blanch. At Wesley Music Centre, September 28. Reviewed by HELEN MUSA.

For its penultimate concert this year, Art Song Canberra presented the husband-and-wife duo of Argentine mezzo soprano Maria Eugenia Nieva and Canberra-trained guitarist, Andrew Blanch in a carefully-selected program of music, mostly from the regions of Argentina.

This purpose of the selection was to bridge Argentina’s folkloristic roots and the many vocal genres based on dance rhythms of tonada, zamba, cueca and tango, the latter very familiar to Canberrans through the works Argentine Nuevo Tango (new tango) composer Astor Piazzolla.

The folkloric music being so diverse, Nieva and Blanch took care to introduced the Art Song audience to the zamba (nothing to do with Brazil’s Samba) and cueca styles of music.

The program of 11 songs with a short Puerto Rican encore gave a picture of the way regional folkloric music had made its way to the concert stage, but this was no academic concert.

It was, rather, an afternoon of pure joy, aided by a superb printed program with words to all the songs in English and Spanish.

After a light opening guitar solo by Blanch, who would play other solos in the afternoon, it was time for Nieva to take the stage with the slow, enticing Zamba azul (Blue Zamba) by Tito Francia and Armando Tejada Gómez.

This was followed quickly by Regreso a la tonada (Return to the tune) by Tito Francia and Armando Tejada Gómez, in a seemingly perfect balance of voice and guitar as Nieva sang of nostalgia for her hometown, Mendoza.

Another famous Zamba, Alfonsina y el mar by Ariel Ramirez and Félix Luna. It is a tribute to Argentine feminist poet Alfonsina Storni, who took her own life by walking into the sea. This music ended surprisingly, with a gentle guitar exit.

Several songs in the short concert were taken from real life stories of ordinary people, as in La Pomeña by Gustavo “Cuchi” Leguizamón and Manuel J Castilla about a young girl (now alive and an old lady) who was drawn to the dance floor, allowing thieves to enter her house.

Perhaps all the regional songs could be summed up in the words of Canción de las simples cosas by César Isella and Armando Tejada Gómez, modest and understated in its repeated phrase: “For love is simple and simple things are devoured by time”.

Tango lovers were not disappointed when Nieva gave us a brief history of its origins in the ports and bordellos of Buenos Aires and its transition into vocal music under the watch of the famous singer Carlos Gardel, of whom Argentines still say: “Gardel sings better every day,” even though he died in the 1930s.

El día que me quieras (the day that you love me), by Gardel and Alfredo La Pera, allowed Nieva to give full force to her expressive dramatic style, affirming the power and efficacy of love.

With a similar intent to some of the earlier folkloric songs, Piazzolla and Horacio Ferrer’s tango, Chiquilín de Bachín, shows the great master Piazzolla in a bar quizzing an impoverished little rose-seller about his life.

Nieva and Blanch returned to Mendoza in the foothills of the Andes for their final festive number, El sueño de la vendimia, by Jorge Viña and Ismael Guerrero. A celebration of the wine seasons and Blanch took flight as Nieva sang: “The sounds of guitars awakens dance in its joy”.