Tired of his ideas being rejected by the world of traditional tango, Astor Piazzolla decided he wanted to become a classical musician and travelled to Paris to study with Nadia Boulanger in the 1950s. Although this Parisian experience didn’t turn out quite as Piazzolla expected, he successfully created an innovative modern tango project together with musicians from the Opéra de Paris; their album was called Sinfonia de tango. However, Piazzolla was not satisfied with the project due to a lack of tango musicians who could perform as soloists alongside the orchestra, and he subsequently reframed the project, with tango soloists, in Buenos Aires. SONICO uses this “model” for our proposal: in this programme, the members of SONICO perform as soloists with the support of a symphonic orchestra.
This tango orchestra program includes, for the first time together on stage, the music of the Orquesta de Cuerdas (Piazzolla) and the Agrupación de Tango Moderno (Rovira); the Agrupación de Tango Moderno was a highly influential formation formed in 1960, dedicated to tango music for listening, instead of dancing. The compositions will be adapted for a larger symphony orchestra by the composer Alejandro Schwarz. Schwarz is an experienced creator of symphonic tango programs, such as the 2008 BBC Concert Orchestra production under the direction of Charles Hazlewood which explored the world of Argentinean music in a symphonic framework. This 90-minute concert was broadcast by BBC Radio 3 in the series “Discovering Music”.
EDUARDO ROVIRA Agrupación de Tango Moderno (1961-1980)
Nostalgico (1963) Julian Plaza arr. Eduardo Rovira
Contrapunteando (1963) Eduardo Rovira
Para Piano y Orquesta (1963) Eduardo Rovira
Músicos – El violín de mi cuidad (1958) Eduardo Rovira
Serial Dodecafonico (1961) Eduardo Rovira
Sinfonia (1958) Eduardo Rovira
No Title (1958) Eduardo Rovira
Trialogo (1963) Eduardo Rovira
ASTOR PIAZZOLLA Octeto Buenos Aires (1956- 1958)
Sensiblero (1957) Julian Plaza arr. Astor Piazzolla
Lo Que Vendrá (1957) Astor Piazzolla
Miedo (1957) Elvino Vardaro arr. Astor Piazzolla
Noche De Amor (1957) Luis Rubinstein arr. Astor Piazzolla
Prepárense (1957) Astor Piazzolla
Inspiración (1957) Peregrino Paulos arr. Astor Piazzolla
Tango Del Ángel (1957) Astor Piazzolla
La Cumparsita (1957) Matos Rodriges arr. Astor Piazzolla
Melancólico Buenos Aires (1957) Astor Piazzolla
Del Bajo Fondo (1957) Osvaldo Tarantino arr. Astor Piazzolla
Tres Minutos Con La Realidad (1957) Astor Piazzolla
Lysandre Donoso – Bandoneon
Stephen Meyer – Violin
Alejandro Schwarz – Electric Guitar
Ariel Eberstein – Double bass
Ivo De Greef – Piano
+ ORCHESTRA
a Production of El Antitango