Search - Astor Piazzolla, Kremer :: Maria De Buenos Aires

Can words do justice to such Genius? Let me try....

zimri-lim | London, England | 02/27/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Piazzolla's "Maria of Buenos Aires" is a work of great genius created by one of the finest and most natural composers of all time. This is music that will transfix the listener and create a powerful musical and emotional intensity. While words cannot fully describe the beauty and awe of this music I will attempt to elucidate my impressions of this outstanding production:"Maria" written some thirty years ago is a key work which successfully combines Tango idioms with Opera to create something of great power and emotional force. Piazzolla's music and Uruguayan poet Horacio Ferrer's words combine to form a evocative mood and melancholic story around our tragic heroine, the eponymous Maria of Buenos Aires.This is a two-CD set, well presented with the Spanish libretto and translations into various other languages including English and German. The packaging is excellent such that this would make a very presentable gift. Being a double CD with some 100 minutes of music this is a substantial work and one which handsomely repays repeated listenings.For those of you who have not previously been exposed to the music of Astor Piazzolla I would comment that he is, in the opinion of many, one of the leading composers of the last century. As well as being prolific in his output he possessed in abundance the ability to create and arrange beautiful music with a profundity and integrity that bears comparison with any other. Not for him the avant-garde musings of other composers - Piazzolla's creativity ran so deep that he did not need to resort to the esoteric. His music is both accessible and clear but always new and reinventing itself. His music ran from his pen almost as fast as he could write it down - he was a true natural.Only Piazzolla had the ability and vision to create a sustained work of Tango music at this level of quality. The musical material is of the highest standard and contains much deeply moving music. Horacio Ferrer's contribution is less easily measured especially given the rather challenging Spanish vocabulary and imagery he uses. The story is rather impressionistic involving Maria dying twice (now that really is tragic!) and works better on an emotional than a logical basis gelling with the Tango propensity for tragedy and loss.The original Piazzolla version of this work was rather different to the current arrangement which has a very classically oriented approach based largely on strings. Use of the bandoneon (Piazzolla's weapon of choice) is substantially reduced and a greater emphasis has been put on strings, especially 'Cello. Gidon Kremer, the arranger, band leader and violinist has added greatly to the work by interpreting it with enormous sensitivity and taste. I saw a production of "Maria" in London two years ago and the arrangement was very mediocre but Kremer's production is in a much higher league and top marks to him for bringing the essence of Piazzollas music and drama into such a clear perspective here. For those interested in following Piazzolla's music through it is worth noting that Kremer is an excellent interpreter of Piazzolla's music having produced a number of excellent CDs. In the case of "Maria" the classical background and sympathy with Piazzolla's compositions gel particularly well in this production given the scale of the work and the resources required to sustain the production.Much, possibly even all, of this music are so poignant that they will reach into your soul and remain with you. All of this production is music at the highest level of creativity and humanity; it starts nigh on perfect and never dips below that high level, Piazzolla seemed incapable of producing "filler" in his music. This is is amongst the greatest music of the last century regardless of genre. For those looking for truly great music I cannot recommend this CD highly enough. I urge you to buy it and immerse yourself in it."

Kremer's "Maria": A Free Adaptation

Daniel Pinkerton | Minneapolis MN USA | 01/03/2000

(4 out of 5 stars)

"The original "Maria de Buenos Aries" (as evidenced by the recording on Milan) is an interesting hybrid of classical opera (or perhaps oratorio--it's more like Stravinsky's "Histoire du Soldat" than conventional opera) and "The New Tango." It is the highly poetic and allegorical tale of Maria, the spirit of tango, and her life, death, and resurrection in the city of Buenos Aries. In the original, Piazzolla wrote soaring arias with his own particular brand of melancholy tango-based classical music as their basis. The new arrangement by composer Leonid Desyatnikov, done with the blessing and participation of librettist Horacio Ferrer, drains all the classical out of the equation, resulting in some very authentic sounding Piazzolla tango music, but a work that is far from the original "Maria" in style. Much more of the choral work is spoken rather than sung (and occasionally, spoken not quite in unison), and the chief soloists, Julia Zenko (Maria) and Jairo (everyone else), come out of the Argentinian tango tradition rather than a classical tradition. Zenko's supple alto smolders, but is a long way from the higher-pitched, operatically sung performance of the original.This may not be a bad thing for some people; the present adaptation may, in fact be the perfect opera for people who hate opera. (You should, however, warn them about the Spanish narration spoken over a lot of the music.) The playing and singing are, after all, as superb as the other Kremer albums of Piazzolla's music. (The spoken choruses, particularly in the "Circus of Analysts" scene, are the one exception.)Yet Kremer and Desyatnikov are ultimately guilty of hubris. The "arrangement" and many other musical decisions implemented radically alter the piece in ways that make it sound more like unadulturated tango music--yet that isn't what Piazzolla was aiming for. I'm sure I'll get used to it and cheerfully play it along with all the other Piazzolla in my CD collection, but it may ultimately be the one opera that I own two copies of--because the two available recordings of "Maria de Buenos Aries" are really recordings of two different works."

In reply to Daniel Pinkerton's review

Laureano López | Argentina | 11/23/2003

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I know it may be a little late to correct this mistake, but I'll do it anyway.
María de Buenos Aires was composed (for an 11 musicians ensamble), first played and recorded in 1968. This original version was published in Argentina by Trova Ediciones Musicales (on LP as TL-20/2; reissued on CD as 5013 and 5014), and was never published in other countries (except for a 1990 edition in Spain by Alfa, AFCD-14/15).
In November 1987, the operita was completely rearranged (and in a certain sense, "re-composed") for an homage to Piazzolla, and staged at Theatre Municipale de Tourcoing. This arrangement not only included about 30 musicians and more than five singers, but also altered the original parts of the work; the intended effect was somewhat more "operatic" than the original. Unfortunately, _this_ one was the only available version in most countries until 1998.
In consequence, Gidon Kremer's version IS based upon the original, and NOT the Milan one. I do not certainly love this Desyatnikov's rearrangement; I think that the original percussion and drums really added to the sound, and it seems that the bandoneón can't reach here the intense feeling of the original, despite its technicial perfection. Anyway, I can't deny the relevance of this album; it's still the only available version of the original operita in most countries, and I certainly think that María de Buenos Aires is Piazzolla's masterpiece, even when not his most complex work."