Astor Piazzolla - Libertango (CD)

All Music Guide

In the midst of such a boom, it's instructive to recall that Astor Piazzolla was almost unknown for decades. This neglect resulted partly from the utter impossibility of classifying his music, which was too modernistic and too close to classical music for Argentine lovers of the tango but was of little interest to the doctrinaire people who ruled concert music in the 1960s and 1970s. Even now, Piazzolla presents a richly challenging collision between different modes of musicmaking. His music was mostly notated in the classical manner but contained numerous influences from improvisatory traditions, and he seemed to underline its essential malleability by making multiple arrangements of popular compositions like Adiós Nonino. Nor did he and his quintets play his music exactly the same way every time.All of which is important background information as one approaches this disc of live performances by France's Quatuor Caliente. Piazzolla's music has often been arranged for new instrumental ...combinations, most successfully by violinist Gidon Kremer and his Kremerata Baltica. It has never, however, been interpreted to the degree that the Quatuor Caliente does. The basic sound of the music is close to that of Piazzolla and his various quintets, featuring Guillaume Hodeau on bandoneón (the concertinalike instrument at the heart of tango music), along with violin, double bass, piano, and on some pieces a vibraphone, an instrument Piazzolla knew well and sometimes wrote for. But these players break new ground in what they do with these instruments. They vary the tempo. They have a solo player open a piece, or reduce the texture to a solo from time to time. Double bassist Nicolas Marty slaps his instrument, adding a vigorous rhythmic dimension. And all the way through there are subtler alterations to these pieces, which are mostly Piazzolla's greatest hits: Libertango, Adiós Nonino, Verano Porteño, La muerte del Angel, and others equally beloved. Read more Less