Duo Bögeholz Mosalini

  • Info

  • Vicente Bögeholz - Guitar
    Juanjo Mosalini - Bandoneon

    Only six months after the Chilean guitarist Vicente Bögeholz and the Argentinian bandoneonist Juanjo Mosalini met in Paris in the summer of 2000, the music critics highly acclaimed the “seamless ensemble playing of this unique duo” :

    “…Every note convinces the listener that these are two musical soul mates, listening sensitively one to another, showing intuitive perfection in playing together, quite apart from the fact that each of them is an accomplished musician and virtuoso in his own right. …” (AZ)

    “…The tango musicians of today are taking Piazzola´s innovations ever further. Since the 90s, a new repertoire has been evolving from the spirit of Argentinian tango which no longer needs the sharp, accentuated tango rhythms to be a tango. Concise structures, phrases, tone colours and unmistakeable gestures characterise the tango of recent years, going way beyond worn-out clichés. … Ensembles such as the Duo Bögeholz Mosalini consistently pursue an expansion of the repertoire, especially for the two instruments that are at the heart of the tango, the bandoneón and the guitar. …” (Dr.Eckhard Weber, Berlin)

    In their programmes Flores negras or De las tierras Bögeholz & Mosalini present the stylistic variation of tango music that is so rich in contrast. Their new repertoire underlines the fluid transition to the aesthetics of a contemporary chamber music that is easily accessible. Including a string quintet in the programmes Concert d´aujourd´hui or Tango Inventions underlines the universal character of this music.

    Their interpretations have been broadcast throughout the world and in Germany by all the ARD public stations. June 2004 saw the release of their duo CD “Villa Luro“ and April 2010 the septet CD "Invenciones tangueras" with the Quatuor Danel and the double bassist, Titus Oppmann (Marc Aurel / Raumklang).

    In the spring of 2006, the Duo Bögeholz-Mosalini was awarded the German World Music Prize (MDR Figaro). “

    German world music award RUTH 2006

    Laudation

    Could anything be more fitting on a dreary November afternoon in Berlin than a single sound from Juanjo Mosalini’s bandoneon ? It is quite fascinating that this one tone alone tells the listener : “I am the tango”. This listener can readily understand why the sound and timbre of the bandoneon are the tango. The partner to this bandoneon is Vicente Bögeholz’ guitar. Delicately, with great feeling, but also playfully, with sprightly accents – the guitar cavorts with the bandoneon’s sounds, dances about them, withdraws coyly to then reemerge and, itself looking for a response, position itself in the room.

    These two young musicians, Bögeholz and Mosalini, born in Chile and Argentina, respectively, are the masters of their instruments, masters of melancholy, masters of the tango. Their music mirrors the microcosm of the tango with its bereavement, its inner conflicts, its rootless displacement, its passionate search, its eternal “despite it all”. With breathtaking confidence in their playing, with superb virtuosity and with great empathy, this duo merges to form a tonal unity in which each presupposes the other. Bögeholz-Mosalini play the new – their new – tango, proving once again that the tango is a genre that has remade itself again and again for more than a century now. There are probably more than enough reasons to do so in a world where alienation and uprooting define the existence of the majority, in a world where often the only link with a certain culture is the remembrance of that culture. More pleasurable, and something of a relief, is the realization that young musicians continue to make the leap between the traditional and the modern and thus make it possible to conceive of a future.

    The jury is awarding the RUTH 2006, in the “newcomer” category, to the BÖGEHOLZ-MOSALINI DUO. The jury wishes to thank both of them for music full of depth and expressive power, music that forces us to take a moment to listen, music that can transport us into a state beyond time and space, … perhaps the most beautiful state that music can offer.

    Gigi Backes