Post by erik on Aug 15, 2020 15:18:12 GMT -5
In this week's Classical Works Spotlight, the Argentinean composer Astor Piazzolla arrives with a work in a form that, even if he didn't create, he certainly helped popularize in the Americas.
Astor Piazzolla: TANGAZO
Much of the greatest music of the 20th century came out of the Latin American world. And one of the great exponents of the Latin American sound was the Argentinean composer Astor Piazzolla. Piazzolla, perhaps more than any other composer, was responsible for bringing the Tango to extreme prominence throughout all of Latin America, and then ultimately to the United States. He learned to play the bandoneon, a form of concertina or accordion, after his father spotted one in a New York City pawnshop in 1929; and in 1946, he formed the Orquesta Tipico. His approach to the Tango was to incorporate elements of Latin jazz; and this would figure into his 1970 work “Tangazo”, a fifteen-minute symphonic tone poem of sorts that elevated the tango style into a fairly familiar classical form that nevertheless had considerable moments of ethnic flair. A vibrant work, it was instantly popular in South and Central America; and it would eventually find a huge audience in the United States. For many years, however, while his native Argentina was under military rule, Piazzolla lived in Italy. Besides his Latin compositions, Piazzolla also composed the scores for many South American films; and his 1982 work “Suite Punta Del Este” was adapted by English composer Paul Buckmaster as part of his score to the 1995 Terry Gilliam film 12 Monkeys. Piazzolla is remembered in his native Argentina by virtue of his name being on the Buenos Aires Music Conservatory and the name of the international airport in his birthplace of Mar Del Plata. He passed away on July 4, 1992 at the age of 71, after a cerebral hemorrhage he suffered in August 1990 left him in a coma for the final twenty-three months of his life.
Houston Symphony Orchestra/ANDRES OROZCO-ESTRADA (Pentatone)
Included (Music Of The Americas):
Silvestre Revueltas: SENSEMAYA
Leonard Bernstein: SYMPHONIC DANCES FROM “WEST SIDE STORY”
Gershwin: AN AMERICAN IN PARIS
Astor Piazzolla: TANGAZO
Much of the greatest music of the 20th century came out of the Latin American world. And one of the great exponents of the Latin American sound was the Argentinean composer Astor Piazzolla. Piazzolla, perhaps more than any other composer, was responsible for bringing the Tango to extreme prominence throughout all of Latin America, and then ultimately to the United States. He learned to play the bandoneon, a form of concertina or accordion, after his father spotted one in a New York City pawnshop in 1929; and in 1946, he formed the Orquesta Tipico. His approach to the Tango was to incorporate elements of Latin jazz; and this would figure into his 1970 work “Tangazo”, a fifteen-minute symphonic tone poem of sorts that elevated the tango style into a fairly familiar classical form that nevertheless had considerable moments of ethnic flair. A vibrant work, it was instantly popular in South and Central America; and it would eventually find a huge audience in the United States. For many years, however, while his native Argentina was under military rule, Piazzolla lived in Italy. Besides his Latin compositions, Piazzolla also composed the scores for many South American films; and his 1982 work “Suite Punta Del Este” was adapted by English composer Paul Buckmaster as part of his score to the 1995 Terry Gilliam film 12 Monkeys. Piazzolla is remembered in his native Argentina by virtue of his name being on the Buenos Aires Music Conservatory and the name of the international airport in his birthplace of Mar Del Plata. He passed away on July 4, 1992 at the age of 71, after a cerebral hemorrhage he suffered in August 1990 left him in a coma for the final twenty-three months of his life.
Houston Symphony Orchestra/ANDRES OROZCO-ESTRADA (Pentatone)
Included (Music Of The Americas):
Silvestre Revueltas: SENSEMAYA
Leonard Bernstein: SYMPHONIC DANCES FROM “WEST SIDE STORY”
Gershwin: AN AMERICAN IN PARIS
