Search - Astor Piazzolla, Australian Chamber Orchestra, Benjamin Martin :: Piazzolla: Song of the Angel

Oh, the languor! The passion!

Bob Zeidler | Charlton, MA United States | 12/26/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Some time back - now rapidly approaching the two-year mark - I attended an Australian Chamber Orchestra concert while they were on tour in the U.S. The printed program was a combination of somewhat standard fare by Mozart and Bartok combined with offbeat works by Haydn and Sculthorpe. Their ability to absorb and idiomatically recreate such a wide range of styles was, to put it mildly, staggering. It was a rousing success for this Tognetti Troupe, so much so that they were called back for multiple encores.



The final encore was Tognetti's arrangement of Astor Piazzolla's "Oblivion" for string orchestra (sans bandoneon), and it was a sublime ending to an outstanding concert. In that performance, it was clear to me that the unique Piazzolla style had survived the journey from Argentina to Australia, and that, moreover, Tognetti had succeeded in capturing the Piazzolla spirit in his string orchestra arrangement of "Oblivion", made even more insinuatingly sinuous (if that were possible) by "implying" the missing bandoneon part. (In point of fact, Piazzolla's music exhibits a great deal of resiliency to arrangement for instrumental forces other than what he wrote for, as can be witnessed in the various successes of Daniel Barenboim, Gidon Kremer, the Kronos Quartet, Yo-Yo Ma, and even the Montreal Symphony Orchestra led by Charles Dutoit.)



Given the idiomatic panache with which the Tognetti Troupe performed "Oblivion," as well as a personal preference for string orchestral arrangements, I had high hopes that a Piazzolla CD by this group would be forthcoming. When, about a year ago, an Australian cyberfriend informed me that the group had scheduled a series of concerts of Piazzolla's music, my hopes brightened considerably. And now that album is here. (N.B.: It wasn't easy to find this product page despite its being here for some two months already; various "power search" tricks failed. Finally, almost in a fit of desperation, I succeeded in "fudging" this page from its UK equivalent by monkeying with the URL.)



This is a well-filled album (at a total timing of 74:31), and it is everything I could have hoped for, and then some. This is as good a cross-section of Piazzolla's music that can be made to fit on a CD, including several of his most famous works covering the full gamut of his style, from wildly energetic to passionately languorous.



James Crabb - the guest soloist (and arranger of several of the album's works) - is nothing short of incredible. Performing on classical accordion - like the bandoneon, a "button" accordion, but with a far different and much more complex arrangement of "keys" - Crabb seemingly has no difficulty in adapting this instrument to perform music that fell naturally to Piazzolla's own hands but must be at a higher level of difficulty for his chosen instrument. Nevertheless, he does it all, and the effect is as if Piazzolla himself was there.



While I've heard most of this music before, either by Piazzolla and his own group or by one or more of the groups noted at the outset, works new to me are "Vayamos al Diablo," not quite a tango with its strange 7/4 beat, and "Tanguedia," a dark piece suggestive (as the booklet notes point out) of a dangerous Buenos Aires at night, as it "deconstructs" totally while it proceeds to its eerie conclusion.



But I am a sucker for passionately languorous Piazzolla, and it is in such pieces as "Oblivion" and "Milonga del Angel" that I think Tognetti and Crabb do their best work as arrangers and performers. The string chamber orchestra seems ideal as an instrumental setting for these, especially with the way the arrangements incorporate both piano and harp (particularly the latter, which adds a marvelous touch). Tognetti's solo turns on violin exhibit a sweetness of tone and a performing style as well that - when combined with the full strings plus harp - can literally take one's breath away. This is magic that lingers.



Maestro Tognetti has an incredibly natural feel for this music, and his ability to imbue his ensemble with "the feel" is remarkable. These Aussies, to a person, play Piazzolla as if they were "to the manner born." And it's downright nice of Tognetti to arrange the tracks so that "Oblivion" is the stunning closer: a wonderful keepsake of that evening, nearly two years ago, when the languorous strains of "Oblivion" wafted out from the stage to enthrall me and leave me both dizzy and hungry for more.



This album is, without question, the "Piazzolla album of the year" and among the finest chamber orchestra albums it's been my pleasure to enjoy. Should Maestro Tognetti bring his troupe to the U.S. again this year, showcasing the music on this album, I'll be there!



Bob Zeidler"