Notes and Editorial Reviews
When Argentinian Astor Piazzolla died in 1992, only a few buffs were familiar with his idiosyncratic hybrid: tango rhythm with assured classical technique; MOR-ballad appeal with combative, Bartók-like dissonance and thrust.
Today the Piazzolla bandwagon, surging along to its 3-3-2 beat, seems unstoppable. Amazon can sell you over 1,400 recordings, and on a summer evening in London he’ll be throbbing soulfully at several outdoor concerts. Smart, stylish, often beautiful exterior; underneath, self-doubt, pain, regret and fear. No wonder Piazzolla’s cask-strength music has such urban appeal in an anxious age.
These discs both give us piano-trio versions of the now-familiar Cuatro estaciones porteñas
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(Four Seasons in Buenos Aires). No Vivaldi-style twittering birds here: these are psychological, human seasons.
The Artemis Project (AP) use their own inventive arrangements; the Gryphon Trio (GT), José Bragato’s ‘more standard’ ones.
They can differ significantly: AP add intros, change registers, and spice things up liberally with those percussive scratches, knocks and string swoops that Piazzolla loved (and swap a viola for violin in ‘Winter’). It notices particularly in ‘Spring’. AP gives us an Angel Suite, four of Piazzolla’s loosely-related ‘angel’ set (Introduction, Tango, Milonga, Death) arranged convincingly and poignantly for string quartet.
GT’s angel selection (Milonga, Death, Resurrection, Tango) use lovely Bragato-style arrangements for piano trio. The Milonga, a Piazzolla signature piece, shows the different approaches: AP’s front-lit, nervy high registers; GT’s rather more resigned, side-lit piano shadows.
AP include an urgent Fuga y misterio, and a crisp Concierto para quinteto; GT add Oblivion. Interpretatively, AP tend to be faster in the fast sections and slower in the slow, with string solos being a little more intense; GT are a little more laid-back, with a plummier sound.
If you were selecting dancers (not that Piazzolla wrote these to dance to: like Bach, they’re abstracted dance forms, stand-alone music) AP would have the neurotic-thin smoker, vividly made up and tautly gesturing her stockinged legs; GT would get her elder sister with the beautiful sad smile and dewy-eyed hard-luck stories.
Both are superbly played with great style and intense emotion; as with whisky-or-wine, which you prefer depends on taste and circumstance.
-- Rob Ainsley, BBC Music Magazine
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Works on This Recording
1.
Las estaciones porteñas (4): Verano porteño by Astor Piazzolla
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Gryphon Trio
Period: 20th Century
Written: 1967; Argentina
2.
Las estaciones porteñas (4): Otoño porteño by Astor Piazzolla
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Gryphon Trio
Period: 20th Century
Written: 1969; Argentina
3.
Las estaciones porteñas (4): Invierno porteño by Astor Piazzolla
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Gryphon Trio
Period: 20th Century
Written: 1970; Argentina
4.
Las estaciones porteñas (4): Primavera porteña by Astor Piazzolla
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Gryphon Trio
Period: 20th Century
Written: 1970; Argentina
5.
Enrico IV: Oblivion by Astor Piazzolla
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Gryphon Trio
Period: 20th Century
Written: 1984; Argentina
6.
Milonga del Angel by Astor Piazzolla
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Gryphon Trio
Period: 20th Century
Written: 1965; Argentina
7.
La muerte del Angel by Astor Piazzolla
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Gryphon Trio
Period: 20th Century
Written: 1962; Argentina
8.
Resurrección del Angel by Astor Piazzolla
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Gryphon Trio
Period: 20th Century
Written: 1965; Argentina
9.
Tango del angel by Astor Piazzolla
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Gryphon Trio
Period: 20th Century
10.
New Danzon by Hilario Durán
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Gryphon Trio
Period: 20th Century
11.
Contradanza by Hilario Durán
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Gryphon Trio
Period: 20th Century
12.
Canciones (2), Op. 3: no 1, Canción a la luna lunanca by Alberto Ginastera
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Gryphon Trio
Period: 20th Century
Written: 1938; Argentina
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