Balkan Fever 2007 26th April 2007
Review by Sofi Morgensen
At
first glance the musical pairing of Austrian hurdy-gurdy maestro Matthias
Loibner and Bosnian singer Natasa Mirkovic may not have seemed an obvious
one, but Loibner’s playing provided the perfect foil to
Mirkovic’s vocal tour of Balkan and Austrian traditional songs.
Loibner proved himself to be something of a technical wizard, coaxing out
of his custom-made hurdy-gurdy a vast array of sounds – from the
mellow to the wonderfully raucous – that at times made you wonder
where the third musician was sitting.
Natasa Mirkovic has an attractive voice that’s well
suited to Bosnian sevdalinka – yearning songs of love and longing
– which she delivered with ease alongside Albanian, Serbian,
Sephardic and Austrian songs. She also showed off her capacity to produce
ear-piercing calls (a brave choice for an intimate venue), and additional
resonance by drumming up and down the breastbone with her fingers while
singing.
Their lively sense of
humour and obvious desire to communicate with the audience resulted in a
relaxed evening of great music at Pizza on the Park as part of