The Dutch duo Toeac’s performance today was nothing short of phenomenal. The ladies are masters of their button accordions, and they delivered a programme of immense difficulty and exceptionally high standard. It is not often that one sees an accordion duo live in concert in South Africa. It was especially remarkable that they were able to deliver most of the works on the programme from memory.
They performed works by Astor Piazzola, Grieg, Stravinsky, Moussorgsky, and some original duo works composed for them by lesser known Dutch composers.
The ladies both have an outstanding talent for a variety of different styles. They are masters of the beautiful slow moving type of music such as the Sarabande from the Holberg Suite, up to the dynamic fast virtuoso majecstic “The Great Gates of Kiev” from “Pictures at an Exhibition” by Modest Moussorgsky.
They are world class. It sees as if neither of them is capable of making a mistake, and they make it look easy, but then: anything that has been mastered looks easy.
Although they played standard Free Bass acoustic concert accordions, that should have sounded like two accordions, they sounded like two full orchestras. The variety of different sounds that could be portrayed by two smallish ladies, on two smallish accordions, boggles the mind.