Classical Albums:
Adios Nonino
- Main Performer: Astor Piazzolla
- Languages of Booklet Text: English, French
Review
This 1985 live recording has been reissued several times; its original title was Hommage à Liège. After an introductory orchestral arrangement of Piazzolla's famous tango Adiós Nonino, the disc offers two of Piazzolla's more unusual works. Hommage à Liege is a concerto for bandoneón, guitar, and orchestra, with Cacho Tirao on guitar and Piazzolla himself on bandoneón (he also plays on the opening Adiós Nonino). With Gidon Kremer, Yo-Yo Ma, and many other players adapting Piazzolla's music for orchestral concerts, it's surprising that this three-movement concerto is not better known. It opens with a guitar solo, and the roles of the solo instruments are intriguingly differentiated throughout; Piazzolla's bandoneón by turns blends in with the orchestra and takes off on solos that contrast tonally with the rest of the material. One, in the middle Milonga movement (if you want to hear two different answers, ask two tango enthusiasts what "milonga" means), is positively jolly, a rare adjective when it comes to Piazzolla's music. The final Tango movement has some thrilling duets and a seemingly improvised duo cadenza with some growled words of encouragement from one of the players; it's as exciting a large structure as can be found anywhere in the Piazzolla repertoire. The Histoire du Tango for flute and guitar has been performed more often, but it works well paired with another "classical" Piazzolla work here. In four movements, the work traces evolution of tango style from the dives where it originated around 1900 to the concert halls of the present day. One of the many paradoxes that give spice to Piazzolla's music is that he wrote rarely but very competently in traditional classical media. Those who have heard Piazzolla brought into the concert hall by others will be interested to hear how the master himself arranged such encounters. The diverse forces included here render decent reproductions of the classic Piazzolla style; presumably they were under Piazzolla's direction.Complaints about this disc are peripheral to the music included but detract from the listener's enjoyment. The liner notes find room to castigate Piazzolla for writing music about a soccer championship while a right-wing dictatorship took over Argentina -- as if artists ought to be compelled to drop everything and write political music when the winds are not blowing their way. But there is no information as to how Piazzolla came to write a concerto and have it performed by a Belgian symphony orchestra, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Liège. The disc is presented as a live recording, but the Histoire du Tango seems to have been performed in a studio. The Adiós Nonino title is misleading; that work stands apart from the other music on the album, and there are other albums with more typical Piazzolla performances of the work. The sound of this recording was shrill from the start; this slapdash reissue has apparently done little or nothing to improve it. As the only available recording of a major orchestral work of Piazzolla's last years, this is worth the purchase money. The Hommage à Liège, however, remains wide-open for programming by other performers and recording labels. ~ James Manheim, All Music Guide
