Concert review: Paco Fernández Flamenco Company

Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh ***

FLAMENCO has been riding high in recent decades as one of Europe’s oldest yet contemporary cutting edge art forms and Unesco’s 2011 recognition of flamenco as “intangible cultural heritage” has been welcomed enthusiastically in Spain. As the highlight of Edinburgh’s 7th Hispanic Festival, the Paco Fernández company brought their show Salúd y Libertad (“Health and Freedom”) direct from Triana, Seville’s old gypsy quarter, to fire up a dreich October evening.

Flamenco’s essential rapport between Fernández’s guitar and the beautifully gentle, rasp of singer Jésus Flores’s voice was established immediately, with Lucía “La Pinona” Álvarez dancing out of a chair set among the audience, her arms tracing exquisite moves in the air. Fresh from winning the Desplante award at La Unión’s Festival de Cante de las Minas, “La Piñona” was a delight, her sinuous body mapping the emotions evoked by the various moods of flamenco’s palo forms, with sensual sensitivity.

Her companion, Oscar de las Reyes, mined a more flashy, gypsy pathway, marrying a technical ability which had his feet moving so fast they seemed to blur, with the fierce defiance that lies at flamenco’s core.

While at times he almost eclipsed his colleagues, his prowess and bravura exuded tantalisingly vibrant energy.

Although the sight lines at the Queen’s Hall made seeing the essential footwork tricky at times, Fernández’s versatile guitar work linked the night with soulful ease.