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By Thomas Davey
The renowned acoustics at Trinity Anglican Church resonated with a unique combination of piano accordion and clarinet recently. Called 'Acclarion' the concert featured accordionist David Carovillano, and clarinetist Becky Sajo.
David displayed dazzling dexterity on his bass and treble accordion keyboards, his fingers leaping across his three-and-a-half octave pianoforte keyboard to the bass buttons like some musical Cirque de Soleil.
His brilliant finger work was particularly evident in Handel's 'Harmonious Blacksmith', Bizet's 'Carmen', and Brahms' 'Hungarian Dance'.
Now the modern accordion is a fearsome instrument to master with its three and half octave pianoforte keyboard on the right hand.
The left hand bass keyboard is even more intimidating with its 120 bass buttons plus more than 30 'free' bass buttons.
Not only is the left hand out of the player's sight - it is continually in rapid motion as he pumps the bellows.
But, ergonomics aside, his fingers rippled effortlessly across both keyboards simultaneously.
Bass buttons on accordions usually play a secondary role to piano keys, but, in David's hands he was able to ambidextrously switch between bass buttons and pianoforte for the melodies.
When combined with the virtuosity of Becky's equally fluent clarinet, the duo often sounded more like an ensemble, rather than a duet, especially when she switched over to the stand-mounted bass clarinet.
While the concert featured classics such as The Marriage of Figaro, their repertoire included tangos and two compositions by David.
Unsurprisingly, both players have had several years of music studies at universities where they attained Masters' Degree levels.
Their studies evolved into their highly unusual performance which often sounded more like a group than a duet - altogether a most impressive musical evening.