Piazzolla’s family
emigrated to New York in 1934. During
the early 1930s he was engaged by the
Frenchman Charles Romuald Gardès
(better known as Carlos Gardel) who
became the King of the Tango and who
died in an air crash in Colombia. The
young Astor should have been travelling
with Gardel, but his parents prevented
it. Piazzolla returned to Buenos Aires
in 1937, at which time he studied with
Alberto Ginastera and began arranging
and composing. His Orquesta del 46 was
formed in 1944 to perform his own compositions.
In 1954 a symphony composed for the
Buenos Aires Philharmonic Orchestra
won him a scholarship to study in Paris
with Nadia Boulanger. In 1955, he returned
to Buenos Aires which he left in 1974
to settle permanently in Paris. Shortly
before his death he was commissioned
by the Paris Opera to compose a work
on the life of Gardel.
All through his composing
life, he developed his own brand of
Tango, often known as Tango nuevo,
incorporating various influences, from
popular music and ‘serious’ music as
well. This extended also to milonga,
clave and other Afro-American
rhythms. He transformed a low class,
often vulgar music into a real, almost
timeless art, often of a brutal or violent
character - the original tango was a
song of rebellion - often warmly expressive,
but always without any hint of sentimentality
and vulgarity. Most of his pieces were
written for small bands in which he
played bandoneon. He also wrote for
film or ballet. His output includes
some substantial works such as the Double
Concerto for bandoneon, guitar and orchestra
written for the Fifth International
Guitar Festival in Liège, Tres
movimientos tanguísticos porteños
(1963) or Tangazo: Variaciones
sobre Buenos Aires of 1970 (all
three recorded by Charles Dutoit and
his Montreal orchestra on Decca 468
528-2) as well as an opera.
All the pieces here,
all fairly short, were written at various
periods of Piazzolla’s composing life.
Adíos Nonino of
1959, written in memory of his father,
and La muerte del ángel
of 1962 are among the earliest pieces.
Adíos Nonino is
one of his most popular, a deeply felt
homage alternating vigorous writing
and a fine lyrical theme. He made quite
a number of arrangements including the
orchestral version made in 1981 (also
included on the Decca disc). Concierto
para quinteto is a real miniature
concerto for small ensemble written
as a tribute and a farewell to his first
quintet. It is – appropriately enough
– a very brilliant, virtuosic piece.
Verano Porteño
is part of a suite Cuatro estaciones
de Buenos Aires - a sort of
Argentine Four Seasons. La
muerte del ángel (as
well as Milonga del ángel,
also on Dutoit’s disc) is a movement
from incidental music. Soledad
originates from a score for a film directed
by the French actress Jeanne Moreau.
These and the other
pieces recorded here brilliantly demonstrate
the breadth of Piazzolla’s approach
of tango, to which he brought considerable
imagination and in which he displayed
a remarkable formal mastery. Strangely
enough a number of these pieces are
actually conceived as fugues.
These are fine performances
recorded live and they obviously pleased
the audience. I was quite pleased too,
mind you. This release is the perfect
complement to Dutoit’s symphonic readings.
Both are well worth having. They clearly
demonstrate the depth and utter seriousness
of Piazzolla’s music.
Hubert Culot
Quatuor Caliente (Guillaume Hodeau, bandoneon;
Cédric Lorel, piano; Michel Berrier, violin;
Nicolas Marty, double bass); Vincent Maillard
(vibraphone) 
