LIVE music returned to Newton Abbot’s Courtenay Centre last Friday with The Katona Twins opening nadsa concert’s season. Their programme From Bach to Beatles was all new, writes Jeff Collman. 

What a splendid opener was Bach’s French Suite No 5. The Allemande was light and bright, the Courante, vibrant and vivacious, whereas the Sarabande held us in an elegantly stately poise, before the Gigue’s lively chase of virtuosity.

Zoltan Katona then played Mangore’s Vals Op8 No 3. With its haunting melody and romantic style and sensitively executed rubatos, it became obvious why Mangore could be considered the ‘Chopin of the guitar’.

Peter Katona’s composition, Tarrega for Two, drew early spontaneous applause. Starting with delicacy, it ended with virtuosity and flamboyant rubatos. The Alhambra Inspiration had me floating kite-like over Moorish castles, only to be brought back to earth by the ‘Nokia tune’ of the Gran Vals. In Peter’s arrangement it should be added to the list of Wiki’s Best-known Bagatelles.

Nuages, by Django Reinhardt, brought a complete change of mood and style. Then, in his Minor Swing, improvisations passed from one to the other in an intensity of gripping interaction.

Peter Katona’s The Scandal followed. Part of the Karamazov Suite, inspired by Dostoyevsky’s last novel, it showcased the Katonas’ skill at dramatic musical narrative. Their dialogue developed into antagonism and an animalistic stand-off. A pause held an electric silence, a sure sign the audience was gripped.

Mangore’s Julia Florida was taken a tad faster than I was anticipating, but delicate rubatos brought this highly romantic piece to heartfelt life.

Bela Bartok’s Six Romanian Folk Dances provided an opportunity to indulge ourselves with frivolity, variety and panache.

We then heard the Katona twins’ arrangement of Bach’s Sinfonia from Cantata BWV29. Somehow they preserved the keyboard nature and grandeur of this work: a very successful transcription.

Being residents of Liverpool, it was fitting that the Katonas ended their programme with arrangements of four Lennon-McCartney songs. 

Their encore was Albéniz’s  Mallorca: meticulously executed and wonderfully calming.

Anyone planning a concert programme could learn much from the Katona Twins in terms of variety, placing of content and manner of presentation.

The technical skills would be hard to emulate; they employ breath-taking pianissimos, declamatory fortes, sensitive rubatos and dramatic percussive effects together with virtuosity and an extraordinary rapport. Their transpositions and sensitive performance enables just two guitars to stand in for organs, orchestras and swing bands. 

I hope we will hear them again in Newton Abbot before a lapse of  another seven years.