During a moment in which the eyes of the world were glued to war in Ukraine, about 40 people welcomed a glorious distraction by a pair of Brazilian musicians at the 1900 Building. Lívia Nestrovski and Henrique Eisenmann performed 75 minutes of transcendently global music in the first stop of their American tour on Friday, February 25. While the vocalist and pianist expressed enormous pride in their homeland, the innovative sounds they created transcended their origin.
Acknowledging they possess implausible names for practitioners of Brazilian music, the duo joked they considered titling their forthcoming album Orthodox Polish Songs. Yet their fun-filled art songs included captivating original material and imaginative new interpretations of compositions by the likes of Guinga and Hermeto Pascoal.
Eisenmann demonstrated his impeccable jazz bona fides in a 2018 recital at the same venue. He used the Steinway piano he characterized as “a Lamborghini” to craft a few convoluted Cecil Taylor-style improvisations. Nestrovski embraced the unconventional accompaniment as she seamlessly melded MPB (Música popular brasileira), bossa nova, jazz and opera into her inclusive approach.
Nestrovski was wrong when she suggested only musicologists could fully appreciate what she and Eisenmann were achieving. Not only is her considerable showmanship entirely winning, the partnership is as soulful as it is brainy. Besides representing the unparalleled musical breadth of Brazil, the duo would be as germane in Kyiv as in Rio de Janeiro. And on Friday, they made Mission Woods, Kansas, seem like the musical capital of the world.