Adventures in the Big Apple

Donald Macleod explores the life and music of bandoneon virtuoso and composer Astor Piazzolla, through five key locations, beginning in New York, the city in which he grew up.

All his life he fought against the tide, and in the end, he was the victor. Astor Piazzolla was a rebel with a cause. A virtuoso bandoneon player and a composer, he set out to break tango free from its roots, and make it a music with a future far beyond the dance halls and cafes of 1950s Buenos Aires. Hits like “Libertango” and collaborations with jazz giants like Gary Burton and Gerry Mulligan made his name beyond the tango world, while his classical compositions brought his instrument, the bandoneon critical acclaim in the concert hall. The secrets of musical technique came, he said, from his studies with French pedagogue, Nadia Boulanger and Argentinian composer, Alberto Ginastera but they also came from his teenage experiences in Buenos Aires, the city where had played bandoneon and arranged music for Anibal Troilo’s famous tango band.

Across the week Donald Macleod traces Astor Piazzolla’s life through the places which played an important part in his musical development: New York, Buenos Aires, Paris, Rome and the Uraguayan resort of Punta del Este.

Piazzolla’s links with tango begin in New York. Living there as a child, it’s where he encountered one of tangos greats, the singer Carlos Gardel and it’s where he was introduced to the instrument with which he conquered the world, the bandoneon.

Tanguedia
Astor Piazzolla, bandoneon
Pablo Ziegler, piano
Fernando Suarez Paz, violin
Horacio Malvicino, electric guitar
Hector Console, bass

Tres minutos con la Realidad
Astor Piazzolla, bandoneon
Gerardo Gandini, piano
Horacio Malvicino, guitar
Daniel Binelli, bandoneon
José Bragato, cello
Hector Console, bass

Piano sonata no 1, Op 7
Allison Brewster Franzetti, piano

Sideral
Requiem para un Malandra
Astor Piazzolla,and his New Octet
Astor Piazzolla, bandoneon
Antonio Agri, violin
Jaime Gosis, piano
Kicho Díaz, bass
Oscar López Ruiz, electric guitar
José Bragato, cello
Leo Jacobson, percussion
Jorge Barone, flute
Alfredo Alcón, recitation

Adios nonino
Astor Piazzolla and his quintet
Astor Piazzolla, bandoneon
Dante Amicarelli, piano
Antonio Agri, violin
Oscar López Ruiz, guitar
Kicho Diaz, bass

Concierto para quinteto
Astor Piazzolla, bandoneon
Pablo Ziegler, piano
Fernando Suarez Paz, violin
Horacio Malvicino, electric guitar
Hector Console, bass

Producer: Johannah Smith, BBC Wales