WOMAD

Sentimento Gipsy Paganini

From Hungary

Dizzying violin fury from Eastern Europe
The Sentimento Gipsy Paganini are not your average buttoned-down classical outfit. Not for them the drawn-out, ponderous symphony or potentially pompous overture. As their name implies, they favour something somewhat faster and more furious, feeding hungrily on their homeland's generations-deep gypsy traditions. Spanning the divide between Hungary's folk musics and the more formal classical world, think of them as modern-day equivalents of their much-celebrated compatriots, the pioneering composers/ethnomusicologists Bela Bartok and Zoltan Kodaly. And they're also a real bundle of fun, their breakneck violins scurrying hurriedly in every direction while accordion adds extra weight and flavour. And keep those eyes on the dulcimer player when he's handed a solo - the speed at which he hits his notes is astonishing. This is virtuosity with verve and anyone who's ever enjoyed Nigel Kennedy's work with his Polish musician friends is going to go all sentimental for Sentimento.
(Biography written by Nige Tassell 2010)