Let’s Tango!

Astor Piazzolla (1921-1992) was an Argentinian composer and bandoneón player born to Italian immigrant parents. He lived in Mar del Plata, Argentina with his parents and later, moved with his family to New York City where his father bought him his first bandoneón, a folk instrument closely related to the accordion that came to be used in Tango music. After learning to play the bandoneón and writing his first tango piece La Catinga, he then took lessons with Béla Wilda, a classical pianist who taught him to play the music of J.S. Bach on his instrument. The family then returned to Argentina and Piazzolla joined bandleader and bandoneón player, Anibal Troilo to play in his orchestra. In the 1950’s, Piazzolla followed the advice of the great pianist, Arthur Rubinstein who was living in Buenos Aires at the time, to study orchestration with Alberto Ginastera. It was then that he composed his Buenos Aires Symphony in Three Movements. The premier of the symphony prompted a scandalous fight in the audience, sparked by the use of the bandoneón in a classical orchestra! At Ginastera’s suggestion, he entered his Symphony in a competition and won a scholarship to study with Nadia Boulanger in Paris, which proved to be a galvanizing turning point in his career. While studying composition with Boulanger, Piazzolla invited her to hear his band perform in Paris. Later after hearing his Triunfal, she was completely taken in by his masterful playing and inspired and mesmerizing Tango writing. She then advised Astor, who at that moment was pursuing a classical music path, to be true to his musical roots and expand his genius for the composition of Tangos. The techniques he learned with Boulanger lead to his subsequent use of advanced counterpoint and daring compositional and harmonic structure in his music, which he used to great effect in his works. The inspired young composer and virtuoso bandoneón player went on to become the leader of his own bands, which expanded to many new combinations over the years. With Piazzolla, traditional Tango was transformed by incorporating elements of Jazz and Classical music with more advanced rhythmic structure as well as expanding the harmonic form and the use of free improvisation. As his career expanded, he wrote film scores, was a guest with the Buenos Aires Philharmonic and other prominent orchestras, performed at the Montreal International and Montreux Jazz Festivals and collaborated with artists including the Kronos String Quartet, pianist and composer Lalo Schifrin, and cellist Mstislav Rostropovich. He wrote Tango hits like Liber Tango, Oblivion, and Adios Nonino, to name only a few that have captivated audiences the world over.

Piazzolla wrote Kicho in celebration of his favorite bass player in his band, Enrique “Kicho” Diaz who joined Piazzolla’s first quinteto in 1960. So great was his influence as the bassist in many prominent Argentinian Tango bands, the Legislature of Buenos Aires declared Diaz “Tango Double Bass Player of the Century.” This daring and emotional piece truly showcases the bass’s surprising lyrical qualities and equally powerful rhythmic strength. Kicho opens with a collection of written cadenza sections chosen by the bassist to perform in an improvisational style, the performer choosing to play any of the cadenza sections in any order suiting the player’s own personal preference. On this recording following her opening cadenza, Pascale Delache-Feldman along with pianist Victor Cayres arranged to introduce the principal theme on the bass accompanied by percussion on the piano. Its jagged and driving tango rhythms are then taken up by the piano and then further expanded by the bass. In the ensuing heartfelt and poignant middle section, Piazzolla explores and develops this melancholic and sensual melody before circling back to the rhythmic content and drive of the principal theme leading to a triumphant finish.

Le Grand Tango was written in 1982 in Paris for the great Russian cellist Mstislav Rostropovich. This piece received its premier later in 1990 in New Orleans and has since become a staple of the cello’s recital repertoire. Piazzolla takes full advantage of the cello’s bel canto voice to soar into expansive melodies that are an essential component of his unmistakable signature style found in many of his works. Additionally, there are markings in the score directing the players to play “libero e cantabile” or to sing with freedom. A driving and passionate opening theme led by the cello in the beginning of the piece yields way to tender and lyrical sections that artfully intermingle solo turns by the piano and cello. Written with the full range of the cello in mind, Piazzolla incorporates rich idiomatic writing for the instrument that utilizes double-stops, artificial harmonics, glissandi, and other striking effects. As the piece nears its conclusion, the cello and piano enter into a hypnotic ostinato passage, the cello passionately playing in octaves in the high register while the piano plays variations and improvisations that gives way to a lightning fast 16th note jazz/tango run shared by both players that ends like a shooting star with a dramatic glissando to a high A. Having played this incredible piece over many years, I have taken the liberty to modify a few passages to play some of the cello part in a higher tessitura adding some extra variety and excitement to a truly tour de force piece.

Piazzolla’s Five Tangos performed on this recording were transcribed as a set for cello and double bass by Andreas Wiebeke-Gottstein with additional arranging by Duo Cello e Basso. These popular transcriptions are also frequently played in a version for violin and double bass.

J’attends, the first Tango of the set, is powerful and melancholic, its title directly translated from the French meaning “to wait,” or truer to the Tango genre, to wait for a lover. The mysterious La Misma Pena or “the same penalty” comes from the lyrics of the song referring to the pain of love. The music itself is dramatic, wistful, and rhythmic with this arrangement ending pensively and unresolved. Saint Louis en L’Ile refers to Ile St. Louis in Paris and is dedicated to the French cellist, Yves Baquet. The music depicts the hustle and bustle of Paris with slower sections portraying the suave and more cultured side of Piazzola’s writing. Guardia Nueva or “new guard” refers to Tango music reaching its apex on the world scene and of the rise of Nuevo Tango composers. This tango is relaxed, creatively melodic, and utilizes more ornamentation of the melody that is shared as a free dialog between the instruments. To round out the set, Adios Nonino, one of Piazzolla’s most famous Tangos written in memory of the passing of his father presents music that is both alternatively fierce and passionate which then yields to a more tender and loving voice. This piece has great emotional content and brings the Five Tangos to a close with this deeply felt homage.

Traditionally performed as a set, Piazzolla’s Cuatro Estaciones Porteñas or Four Seasons of Buenos Aires were individually composed starting with Verano Porteño (“Summer”) written in 1965 for the play Melenita de Oro by Alberto Rodríquez Muñoz. The other three movements — “Autumn,” “Winter,” and “Spring” — were later composed in 1969-1970 and were intended to be performed using that order with “Summer” as the last movement. Compared with Vivaldi’s Seasons written in Italy, this order is different, perhaps due to the reverse order of the seasons in the southern hemisphere of Argentina. The version presented on this recording is in chronological order starting with Piazzola’s first written season, Summer. The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires were first performed as a set in 1970 in Paris by Piazzolla’s Quintet (first Quinteto) with Piazzolla on the bandoneón and other performers on the violin/viola, electric guitar, double bass, and piano. An incredibly popular and successful composition, there have been many transcriptions of Piazzolla’s Seasons, including a version performed by violinist Gideon Kremer and very notably, the excellent piano trio version by José Bragato. In this version by Duo Cello e Basso, the piano trio transcription of Bragato is arranged and optimized for this combination. Taking our inspiration from Piazzolla’s free use of the extended tessiture of the bass in Kicho and by bringing the cello directly into the violin range, these changes create a solo intensity in the cello themes and a warmth and richness to the bass melodies, which when married to the symphonic resonance of the piano, brings together a unique new sound for this arrangement of the seasons.

— Emmanuel Feldman