Concerts in Sao Paulo and Buenos Aires

The Torre Paris cafe is just what one imagines a Buenos Aires cafe to be: a vaguely Parisian feel, but with a menu, decor and - crucially - waiters who could only be Argentinian. It is half-an-hour after the second concert of our tour. As Joanna MacGregor enters the cafe for a post-concert glass of wine, everyone stands up and cheers. These are the older members of our audience tonight, who have heard everything from Bach to Osvaldo Golijov, from Stravinsky to Joanna’s stunning solo encore of Libertango: and yet they respond with complete admiration and affection for a programme some of them must have found challenging.

Yesterday, we did the same programme in Sao Paulo. The response was brilliant: not an automatic response, more an indication of genuine enjoyment of a very special Britten Sinfonia programme. Two Bach keyboard concerti - we can do the light and airy baroque string sound too - the aggressive Golijov, the deeply intense world of Britten’s Lachrymae, and Joanna’s own very clever, atmospheric arrangements of Dowland and vibrant Gismonti interpretations. A warm reaction from a packed audience. We will be back in Sao Paulo next week on the 7th - details are on our website.