Ástor Piazzolla

Ástor Pantaleón Piazzolla (March 11, 1921 – July 4, 1992) was an Argentine tango composer and bandoneón player. His oeuvre revolutionized the traditional tango into a new style termed nuevo tango, incorporating elements from jazz and classical music. A virtuoso bandoneónist, he regularly performed his own compositions with a variety of ensembles.

Concerto Hommage à Liège (1984)
This is a relatively lyrical and tender work by the Argentine master of Tango nuevo, who is often known for infusing his modern style of tango with a sense of bitterness and loss. Astor Piazzolla (1921-1992) was of Italian descent, born in a fishing village near Buenos Aires but often traveling to the United States to stay for extended periods of time, including part of his school years. By the time he wrote this concerto he had been gaining a sudden international popularity for a few years, and was even winning over many in his homeland who had resisted his stylistic experiments with their beloved national dance.

He wrote this concerto for the Fifth International Guitar Festival, which was held in Liège, Belgium, in 1985. Piazzolla wrote the work for guitarist Cacho Tirao and for bandoneón and played that instrument at its premiere with Tirao and the Liège Philharmonic, conducted by Leo Brouwer (himself a master composer for guitar). One biography of Piazzolla suggests that the composer took musical inspiration from music of English composer William Walton (whose wife was from Argentina). There is also an outstanding arrangement of the concerto with a second guitar replacing the bandoneón, written by the guitar duo of Jeanne Castellani and Michael Andriaccio. They redistributed the notes of the original parts for bandoneón and guitar among their two guitars, but did not alter the original string parts. The opening movement is marked Introduction Lentamente. This section is for the two solo instruments only. It is a piece clearly about loneliness and longing. The absence of the orchestra facilitates the piece being written in a free, seemingly unmeasured rhythm, allowing the soloists to create the impression of an improvised movement. The central movement is marked Milonga. This is a song form with essentially the same rhythm as the tango, but it is less accented, being a vocal work rather than dance accompaniment. Moreover, a traditional milonga is likely to be lighthearted or romantic in mood. Piazzolla wrote numerous works (and movements within works) titled Milonga, but it is particularly appropriate to find one in this concerto, since the milonga is traditionally a vocal duet piece, often in question-and-answer form. Fittingly, the two soloists maintain the dialogue they began in the first movement, but now with the gently pulsing rhythm of milonga. The finale is a work of pure Tango nuevo. The choppy adaptation of tango rhythm, a surging feeling at the end of phrases, adventurous harmonies, and other stylistic traits Piazzolla found in North American popular music and in classical music are all hallmarks of this style and present in the concerto. Piazzolla creates percussion effects by calling on the soloists to slap their instruments. In the two-guitar version, Castellani and Andriaccio felt the need to add a cadenza, which they achieved by transcribing the flute and guitar duet from Piazzolla's Tango Suite.


 * Listening: Youtube by TheWelleszTheatre (Eduardo Isaac, chitarra; Danile Binelli, bandoneon --- National Symphony Orchestra of Argentina diretta da Pedro I. Calderón)