Veracruz: Sones y Flores

Think of a male/female acoustic guitar duo, add Mexico to the equation and you may well come up with Rodrigo y Gabriela. Whereas that pair’s USP is their fire and passion, this duo of Cuban-born Martha Eugenia Mondeja and the Mexican Dr Carlos Muñiz Diaz are two prize-winning masters of the classical guitar who play rather more introverted music with refinement and polish. They formed Duo Coincidencia in 1998 and Mondeja has been working as a professor at the Higher Music Institute in Veracruz. To the untutored ear, it’s impossible to tell them apart, but their seamless interplay is mesmerising.

On this, their debut, the repertoire is a Latin classical one, with three numbers contributed by the great Cuban composer, Ernesto Lecuona, including the evergreen ‘Siboney’ and a lovely version of ‘Andalucía’. Listening to these nine numbers straight through, all skilfully arranged by Eduardo Martín and Walfrido Domínguez, could send one drifting off into a benign trance – which is not a bad thing, but secretly one yearns for a tad more variation in tempo. It’s intricate, sophisticated music, but a little shot of Rod & Gab’s vim mightn’t go amiss.