Astor Piazzolla - Soul of the Tango (Yo-Yo Ma)

Information

Composer: Astor Piazzolla

1. Libertango
2. Tango Suite (arr. Sergio Assad): 1. Andante
3. Tango Suite (arr. Sergio Assad): 2. Allegro
4. Tango Suite (arr. Sergio Assad): 3. Sur: Regreso al amor
5. Tango Suite (arr. Sergio Assad): 4. Le Grand Tango
6. Tango Suite (arr. Sergio Assad): 5. Fugata
7. Tango Remembrances
8. Mumuki
9. Tres minutos con la realidad
10. Milonga de ángel
11. Café 1930

Yo-Yo Ma, cello
Sergio & Odair Assad, guitars
Kathryn Stott, piano
Nestor Marconi, bandoneon
Antonio Agri, violin
Horacio Malvicino, guitar
Hector Console, double bass
Leonardo Marconi, piano
Gerardo Gandini, piano
Frank Corliss, piano
Edwin Barker, double bass

Date: 1997
Label: Sony Classical

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Review

I quote from this disc’s insert commentary: “Tango is more than just notes ... [with its] rhythm that is at once love and dream, pain and reality [and] its special qualities of freedom, passion and ecstasy ... it is dance, poetry, song and gestures, ethos and a philosophy of life.”

Gulping hard after that rhapsody, I turn to the music itself. Yo-Yo Ma is the latest international artist to surrender to the spell of this Argentinian dance now enjoying a new wave of popularity: he can also be heard on the soundtrack of the film The Tango Lesson. Here, surrounded by a brilliant group of experts in the genre (some of them associates of Piazzolla himself), he presents with an evident wholehearted commitment a well-varied programme – ranging from the melancholy or sultry to the energetic or fiery – of Piazzolla pieces both familiar and unfamiliar. Among the latter, Fugata is ingenious, Mumuki richly eloquent, and Tres minutos con la realidad nervily edgy: in this last, Kathryn Stott understandably earned the admiration of her Argentinian colleagues. She also shines with Yo-Yo Ma in an exciting performance of the cello-and-piano duo Le Grand Tango: his playing in the Milonga del angel is outstandingly beautiful. Special mention must also be made of some spectacular virtuosity by the Assad brothers in the Tango Suite. The characteristic bandoneon is featured with the cellist in Cafe 1930; and by technological trickery Yo-Yo Ma partners Piazzolla himself (recorded in 1987) in a confection called Tango Remembrances.

Those who are already fans of this genre will be in no need of encouragement to procure this disc: others would find it perhaps the most persuasive demonstration yet of the extent to which this dance has transcended its low-class Buenos Aires origins.

-- Lionel Salter, Gramophone

More reviews:
https://www.allmusic.com/album/soul-of-the-tango-the-music-of-astor-piazzolla-mw0000713665
https://www.amazon.com/Soul-Tango-Music-Astor-Piazzolla/dp/B0000029XQ

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Astor Piazzolla (March 11, 1921 – July 4, 1992) was an Argentine tango composer, bandoneon player, and arranger. Being Alberto Ginastera's student for five years, Piazzolla mastered orchestration, which he later considered to be one of his strong points. He also studied with the legendary French composition teacher Nadia Boulanger at the Fontainebleau conservatory. His oeuvre revolutionized the traditional tango into a new style termed nuevo tango, incorporating elements from jazz and classical music. A virtuoso bandoneonist, he regularly performed his own compositions with a variety of ensembles.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astor_Piazzolla

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Yo-Yo Ma (born October 7, 1955 in Paris) is a French-born Chinese American cellist. Ma was a child prodigy. He graduated from the Juilliard School and Harvard University and has enjoyed a prolific career as both a soloist and a recording artist. He has recorded more than 90 albums and received 18 Grammy Awards. In addition to recordings of the standard classical repertoire, he has recorded a wide variety of folk music. Ma's primary performance instrument is a Montagnana cello crafted in 1733 valued at US$2.5 million. Another of Ma's cellos, the Davidov Stradivarius, was previously owned by Jacqueline du Pré.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yo-Yo_Ma

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