“Fine musicians and elegant arrangers ... excellent entertainment." BBC Radio 3 CD Review
Stravinsky composed them, and so did Albéniz, Satie and even John Cage – but the composer who really brought the tango to the concert hall was, as might be expected, an Argentinian. In Ástor Piazzolla’s tango nuevo are all the ingredients of his life – his love from adolescence for Classical music, his fascination with jazz and improvisation, and – naturally – the constantly present tango, instilled in him by his father, whom he would immortalize in one of his best-loved works, Adiós NoniNo.Piazzolla’s life-long quest to rejuvenate the tango for a long time caused animosity and even threats from traditionalists in Argentina, and even among his sympathizers there were those who sometimes wondered if what they heard really was a tango. Piazzolla himself never doubted, and musicians of all backgrounds and genres, from jazz (Gerry Mulligan, Gary Burton, Al Di Meola) and pop (Grace Jones) to classical (Gidon Kremer, Yo-Yo Ma) have agreed with him. On the present recording, the trombonist Christian Lindberg has joined up with his long-time chamber music partner Roland Pöntinen and the young bandoneon player Jens Lundberg in a programme that takes in their own arrangements of Piazzolla highlights, performed in various constellations. Trio Tangophoria has also selected some tango standards which featured in Piazzolla’s repertoire, as well as Christian Lindberg’s own homage to Piazzolla: Midvinter (‘Midwinter’), written for a concert project as a bridge between two of the master’s Four Seasons.
