Lavinia Meijer & Carel Kraayenhof - Lavinia Meijer & Carel Kraayenhof in Concert (2015) [Official Digital Download]

On the past few years harpist Lavinia Meijer and bandoneón player Carel Kraayenhof have met several times on festivals and concerts. On the stairs of the artist café at Carré Amsterdam the idea popped out: ‘Let’s sit together, play a bit and see if we can come up with a concert repertoire.’ The concerts that quickly followed that idea were a great success and most of them sold out. Thus the idea of recording a live album together. “In Concert”, was recorded on the 7th and 9th of September of this year at Tivoli Vredenburg (NL).

The choice for a live recording was certain one. Both musicians were filled with the warmth of the audience. Those moments can only be registered with a live recording. In one of the songs a mistake was made. This “mistake” sounds actually better than the notes which were on the paper, so we decided to keep it, and it sounds like it was meant to be.

The repertoire consists of milongas, tangos and other beautiful Argentinean, Spanish and Italian compositions from Piazzolla, Bacalov and Morriconne (among others) and three compositions from Carel Kraayenhof himself; one of them is the tribute to his three legged cat ‘Witneus’. Lavinia Meijer makes het debut as composer with het tribute to her niece, who was borne last year, Hello Stranger.

In total the album consists of 15 compositions, one of which is an impressive interpretation of Piazzolla’s three piece Historie du Tango. The already warm sounds from the harp and the bandoneón complete and strengthen each other in this beautiful, passionate repertoire. Kraayenhof and Meijer have made special arrangements to pretty much every piece because for this unique combination of instruments there are no already written compositions. The photos for the album were taken by ‘Zilveren Camera’ winner, Peter van Breukelen. The author Abdelkader Benali wrote a poetic story line about music, longing and coming home.

TRACKLIST

1 Luis Bacalov: Il postino
2 Enrique Granados: Andaluza
3 Carel Kraayenhof: So Many Partings
4 Astor Piazzolla: Lo que vendrá
5 Carel Kraayenhof: Desconcierto
6 Anselmo Aieta: Palomita blanca
7 Jorge Cardoso: Milonga de Cardoso
8 Astor Piazzolla: Histoire du Tango - Bordel 1900
9 Astor Piazzolla: Histoire du Tango - Café 1930
10 Astor Piazzolla: Histoire du Tango - Nightclub 1960
11 Lavinia Meijer: Hello Stranger
12 Carel Kraayenhof: Ñata blanca
13 Pintín Castellanos: La puñalada
14 Ennio Morricone: Playing Love
15 Mariano Mores: Taquito militar

PERSONNEL
Lavinia Meijer, harp
Carel Kraayenhof, bandoneon