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Anna Noakes and Richard Hand - First Milonga Last Tango
(QTZ2031)

Tulio Peramo , Composer Cuba	Rating:
Thank you very much for the beautiful performance you and flutist Anna Noakes did of Cantos del Caribe. It was a pleasure to listen to the complete piece; the CD "First Milonga - Last Tango" was sent to me by Mr. Johannes Tonio Kreusch, and it was a very nice surprise. Please let know Ms. Noakes how much I appreciate her performance, too. Maybe a new project for your duo could be developed in the near future. Please, keep in touch. Very truly yours, Tulio Peramo

Classical Guitar Magazine London	Rating:
FIRST MILONGA, LAST TANGO A well played programme of flute and guitar music, this offering from two fine musicians is worthy in every way. I would have enjoyed it even more if the guitar had signified its presence better from the beginning- but a guitar reviewer would say that, wouldn’t he? It’s an engineering problem here, and it tends to improve as the CD progresses, so much so that by the time we are half way through Café 1930 the guitar volume is everything you could wish for, allowing Richard Hand to produce playing of a rapt concentration. The flautist, Anna Noakes, matches him in expressiveness, particularly in the calmer parts of Night Club 1960. This movement contains some primitive sounds on the flute that could have come from the wildest parts of South America, but perhaps some night clubs are like that. Tulio Peramo’s Cantos del Caribe deals with the influence of African music on Cuban culture, a familiar enough subject, but given the concentrated intensity that holds the attention throughout its 20 minutes of varied music that includes the vocal melody of La Tarde, the street cries of El Manisero, the lullaby of Ogguere and the festivities of La Comparsa, which guitarists are sure to extract and play as a solo, so familiar are its rhythms. Eliot Fisk, for whom (with his flautist partner Paula Robison) the work was written, apparently asked for some virtuosity, and Peramo obliged. It does nothing to detract from the general attractiveness of the suite. Sierra’s Cronicas del Descrubimiento (Chronicles of Discovery) comprises three main sections, subdivided into six short pieces in three pairs. Flute is prominent, but it is in the writing more than in the engineering. Puerto Rico is the Caribbean island involved here; and the Puerto Ricans’ shock on meeting the Conquistadores provides the subject matter. The search for great wealth without having to work for it was an obsession as current then as it is now, though nowadays it is not so easy to come by. You have to cut down the forests and sell the wood, then you have to have to grow grass for the beefburgers to feed on, at the same time keeping the original residents as far away as possible. Then you find yourself providing pension schemes for your employees, and suddenly its more business than fun. Stephen Goss’s First Milonga, Last Tango, a first recording, is a reflective homage to Piazzolla, the first part written just after the Argentine composer’s death and containing a direct quotation from Café 1930. Last Tango cam along ten years later, and also has a thread of Piazzolla appearing from time to time, in particular material from St Louis en L’ile. Played as lyrically as it is here, Distribuicao de Flores can make an effect beyond its musical content. Sometimes merely banged out enthusiastically, this performance shows that it can evoke shadows of past Greek ceremonies without being just an extroverted carnival celebration. Noakes and Hand deserve praise for this thoughtful rendering as they do for everything else. A highly enjoyable CD. Colin Cooper Classical Guitar, July 2006

classical guitar magazine London	Rating:
FIRST MILONGA, LAST TANGO Bolivar Hall, London. 12th May 2006 Why is it that the combination of flute and guitar works so well? It could be that they offer contrasting dynamic ranges – what with the guitar being such a quiet instrument and the flute being able to project so clearly over the top of it. It could be that the flute can sustain and crescendo over long lingering notes while the noises of the guitar strings slip in and out of the music like frail butterfly wings. Or could it be that they both have Bacchanalian tendencies to incite the ‘beast with many heads’ to seduction, revelry and dance. This was almost the case at the Bolivar Hall the other night. Anna Noakes is a force of music. Where she led, Richard Hand followed. When she was ferocious, Richard responded with fire. When she was sad, Richard responded with pathos, Richard’s musical bar was raised and he vaulted with style. The programme was based on Anna and Richard’s latest CD First Milonga, Last Tango (Quartz). They began with the title track of the album First Milonga, Last Tango by Stephen Goss, who was also present a t the concert. They introduced it, hinting to what will come later, namely Astor Piazzolla’s Histoire du Tango. The First Milonga is serene and stately. It was in fact written as an elegy written after Piazzolla’s death in 1992. The Last Tango, written ten years later, has a bite which could splinter the guitar : at times aggressive, at times bitter but performed with a conviction that drew you in. It is also the first time that these pieces have been recorded. However the outstanding performance of one piece of music from the night’s programme was Roberto Sierra’s Cronicas del Descrubimiento (Chronicles of Discovery). It is a fantastic exploration of what happens when two cultures meet for the first time – the inquisitiveness, the questioning, the jealousy and the rivalry. Based on the clash between the native Indians of the Caribbean islands and the Spanish Conquistadores, Anna and Richard painted pictures of the eerie stillness of the Caribbean night with bird noises and low, undulating tones of the wind. They evoked pictures of gold hungry men through rich sounding tones and the heat of the day with deliberately stretched notes, before the finale of the battle in the final movement. Also on the programme were a couple of movements from Tulio Peramo’s folk-like Cantos del Caribe. The finale of the concert was the Histoire du Tango, which even included an appropriately placed refreshment break (for the performers, not the audience) just before the Café 1930 movement. Anna and Richard provided an evening of the highest calibre in small chamber music. Be warned: should you go to see them, you may well enjoy yourself. Oliver McGhie Classical Guitar, August 2006

musician Magazine London	Rating:
Tasty Tangos Anna is a flautist of considerable renown- she has performed with several of the major London orchestras and can regularly be heard on both Radio 3 and Classic FM. Her partner in this adventurous project is Richard Hand, an international solo guitarist of note, and together they create a delightful palette of Spanish, Central and South American tones. Having filled the air with dancing flute and precisely plucked chords during Histoire du Tango, and having seduced the listener with the charming debut of Cantos del Caribe, the duo moves through a series of equally captivating Latinesque arrangements before climaxing with the title movement. Lovely. MUSICIAN magazine

Andrew Hall Kuala Belait - Brunei Darussalam	Rating:
Anna and Richard recently graced us with their presence in Brunei Darussalam. After experiencing the wonderful performance we purchased this CD. All I can say is excellent, Richard's dexterity continues to amaze.