Astor Piazzola Tango Sensations

Astor Pantaleón Piazzolla (March 11, 1921 – July 4, 1992) was an Argentine tango composer, bandoneon player, and arranger. 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. In 1992, American music critic Stephen Holden described Piazzolla as "the world's foremost composer of tango music".

Inspired by a general love of the tango, and more specifically the tango of Astor Piazzolla, on the part of Yo-Yo Ma, the Soul of the Tango album is a masterful work of the nuevo tango, played by Ma's cello and many of Piazzolla's former associates. Piazzolla's old guitarists Sergio and Odair Assad even showed up to work on a pair of tracks arranged by Sergio: the Tango Suite (consisting of Andante and Allegro). The sheer beauty of one of Piazzolla's tangos is generally enough to warrant the purchase of an album involving them. An album such as this one, where all of the songs (save one: Tango Remembrances, where Ma plays along with outtakes from Piazzolla's recording of The Rough Dancer and the Cyclical Night album) are compositions by Piazzolla is even better. Add to this the masterful playing of Ma, and the surprising facility in which the cello fits into the tango, and you've got what could become a classic album, if only it weren't on the classical label from Sony.

Tango has long become more than the popular Argentine urban dance which developed after 1870 in the poor working class and immigrant areas on the outskirts of Buenos Aires. Tango has aficionados worldwide – be it for its music, culture or the dance. On New Year’s Eve 2006, conductor and pianist Daniel Barenboim, Argentinean by birth and upbringing, celebrated the end of the year with a spectacular musical event: a festival of Argentinean music live from Buenos Aires. In a seamless fusion of classical and traditional music, the Orquesta Filarmónica de Buenos Aires under Barenboim joined the excellent bandoneon virtuoso Leopoldo Federico and his Orquesta Tipica to present an extraordinary show with popular tangos and Latin American orchestra classics to a crowd of 10,000 in a free open-air concert at the Plaza de la República.

The "Tango Sentimentale" ensemble - Maximilian Spenger, Susanne Gargerle (First Violin), Isolde Lehrmann (Second Violin), David Ott, Silvia Cempiny (Violoncello), Thomas Jauch, Manuel Lopez, Hermann Weindorf (Piano & Percussion) - succeeds in fusing classical and modern music in one project. Tango… play between passion and melancholy dance of seduction, devotion and distance lure of fascination and eroticism Moments in the style of traditional tangos by Astor Piazzolla and Sebastian Piana meet modern compositions of the present. In such encounters of a very special kind, familiar elements of a bygone era combine with the forever enduring wishes, dreams and desires in the here and now. Played with abandon with accordion and string quintet, "Tango Sentimentale" takes us into a world of sound full of emotions and fantasy.

The Blu-ray version of the release 'Tango!' by the Isabelle van Keulen Ensemble features a video of the studio performance of several of the Argentinean composer Astor Piazzolla's most popular pieces, including Verano Porteno, Oblivion, and Libertango. Accompanied by a special documentary, 'Music from the Heart', which presents interviews with ensemble members and behind-the-scenes footage of the studio recording process. The Isabelle van Keulen Ensemble was formed in January 2011 by the critically acclaimed Dutch violinist and violist Isabelle van Keulen especially for a series of concerts in Haarlem's Concertgebouw which showcased the music of Ástor Piazzolla.

The Pulsacion set is sort of a musical orphan that has been tacked on to other compilation CDs over the years, but here it is in the logical sequence of its original issue. Those who have never heard it will find it surprisingly different from much of Piazzolla's other works. Different though it is, Pulsacion still screams Piazzolla.