Review of Piazzolla Cafè 1930: Music for Violin and Guitar by Piercarlo Sacco and Andrea Dieci, Brilliant Records, 2014
“Tango is a music of paradoxes. For portenos, as the inhabitants of the port city Buenos Aires are called, it is the deepest expression of their identity. But this music, born at the turn of the century in the muddy outskirts of the city, is a porridge of African, European, and indigenous cultures.”
Fernando Gonzales in Astor Piazzolla A Memoir, Natalio Gorin, Amadeus Press, 2001 pag.13
Shall we talk about Tango without thinking about Piazzolla and his bandoneon? If Argentina and the Tango are inextricably linked together, Astor Piazzolla is the personification of a ‘Nuevo Tango’, a new exciting mix of the traditional dance with jazz and classical music influences.
It had previously been said that in Argentina ‘everything can change except the Tango’. And then there was Astor Piazzolla, who revolutionised this genre in the mid 20th century. Creating his own new genre, his own personal style his spell binding different kind of musics, reinventing tango against the traditionalists’s opinions.
His ‘Histoire du Tango’, the first work to be feature on this compilation, is a tribute to the development of the Tango, it was originally written for flute and guitar, and is here played by violin and guitar, in a transcription by Piercarlo Sacco. It contains descriptive and evocative movements such as like ‘Bordel 1900’, ‘Nightclub 1960’ and ‘Café 1930’.
Also included are the Quatre Études tanguistiques show particular virtuosic elements such as the use of percussive articulation, double harmonics and complex double and triple stops. The collection also includes Celos, as well as Piazzolla’s only work for guitar, the Cinco piezas – an insight into folk melodies and rhythms of Argentinian culture, combined with an unmistakeable streak of classicism.
All the pieces are played with energy, drive and an innate feeling for the characteristic Tango spirit by Piercarlo Sacco and guitarist Andrea Dieci.
Histoire du Tango for flute and guitar (violin part arrangement by Piercarlo Sacco)
1 Bordel 1900
2. Café 1930
3. Nightclub 1960
4. Concert d’aujourd’hui
Cinco Piezas for solo guitar
5. Campero
6. Romántico
7. Acentuado
8. Tristón
9. Compdre
Quatre Études Tanguistiques after Tango – Études for flute (or violin) – violin arrangement by Piercarlo Sacco
10. Décidé
11. Lento meditativo
12. (120 la noire)
13. Avec anxiété
14.Celos – Milonga campera (arrangement for violin and guitar by Andrea Dieci and Piercarlo Sacco)
NeuGuitars 