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Aquiles Delle-Vigne, Piano Born in , Aquiles Delle Vigne gave his first recital at the age of eight. At seventeen, a disciple of Claudio Arrau, he won the Grand Prix Albert Williams, the most prestigious competition in South America. This award ASTOR opened the doors of the most important concert halls of the continent for him. He later completed his training in Europe with Eduardo del Pueyo and György Cziffra. His career has brought twenty concert tours in Japan, and eight in Australia, the United States and Mexico. He appears now in leading festivals and concert venues throughout the PIAZZOLLA’S world, and has collaborated with conductors and orchestras of great distinction. Aquiles Delle Vigne enjoys an international reputation as a teacher and gives master-classes at the Salzburg Mozarteum and at the Rotterdam Conservatorium in The Netherlands. He is also a Visiting Professor at the Royal Northern College of Music in BEST Manchester and a Professor of the Paris Schola Cantorum. He chairs and serves on the juries of the most important international competitions in all five continents. His vast discography with EMI HMV, BASF Harmonia Mundi, BMG-RCA Victor, Pavane and EMS has received outstanding praise. Aquiles Delle-Vigne, Piano

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Astor Piazzolla (1921–1992) historian, composed towards the end of the 1960s. over the next two months. The song begins, Alfredo Gobbi (1912-1965), composer, violinist, , born at Mar del Plata, Argentina in 1921, and was described in the New York Times as ‘the modern arranger and bandleader, was one of the early twentieth Ya sé que estoy piantao, piantao, piantao, emigrated with his family to New York in 1924. As a child master of ’. A British periodical commented century pioneers of the tango. He made his professional No ves que va la luna rodando por Callao; prodigy he learned to play the bandoneón, the square-built that ‘Piazzolla’s tangos will live as long as music is début at the age of thirteen and later played in bands with (I know I am mad, mad, mad, button accordion or concertina, popular in Argentinian appreciated for its ability to convey human emotions’. the leading tangueros of the epoch. He founded his own Do you not see the moon rolling along the tango orchestras. When in 1933 Carlos Gardel (1890-1935), Piazzolla’s prolific range of compositions, some 750 in band in 1942 and made a number of recordings for RCA- Avenida Callao?) the greatest of all tango singers, came to the United States, all, incorporate diverse influences such as European Victor from 1947 onwards, composing many new works of Piazzolla became Gardel’s translator and occasional traditions, jazz and popular elements, while retaining at The work was entered for a competition in the First Latin his own and offering fresh perspectives on traditional accompanist. Gardel wanted the boy to tour with him as an their core an essential and unmistakable Argentinian American Festival of Song and Dance in November 1969, favourites. Piazzolla regarded Gobbi as ‘the father of all assistant, but Piazzolla’s father refused to let him go. identity. His works include theatre music, film scores, causing great controversy for its unconventional approach. who have done the modern tango’ and his Retrato de Tragically, Gardel was killed at Medellín airfield, Colombia concertos, chamber music, and songs, as well as many It was awarded only second prize, the winner being the Alfredo Gobbi (Portrait of Alfredo Gobbi) is an affectionate on 4th June, 1935, along with José Corpas Moreno, who instrumental pieces available in a variety of solo more traditional Hasta el último tren (Until the Last Train) tribute to the older maestro. had gone in Piazzolla’s place. arrangements for piano, bandoneón, and guitar. by Jorge Sobral. Balada para un loco, however, was an Adiós Nonino (Farewell Nonino) is an elegiac piece Piazzolla returned to Argentina in 1937, eventually The history of the tango extends back to the nineteenth immediate success, its initial recording selling some written following the death of the composer’s father, joining Aníbal Troilo’s tango band in . but he century having strong associations with both the 150,000 copies by March 1970. Vicente, in October 1959. Piazzolla regarded this as the yearned to develop the tango into a more profoundly Andalusian tango and the Cuban habanera. In particular The tango-milonga is a strictly instrumental form with finest tune he ever composed, and performed it many expressive form where the music was ‘for the ear as well as the tango found a fertile home among the slums of Buenos a distinct rhythmic character, much performed by popular hundreds of times in at least twenty arrangements. In a for the feet’, an attitude at first resented among the leading Aires in the early twentieth century, where a vigorous orchestras in Buenos Aires. Piazzolla explores the tango’s similar vein, La misma pena (The Same Sadness) is a tango practitioners. On the recommendation of the great tradition became established. Later, owing to the influence more introspective aspects and also incorporates a religious deeply melancholic work uniting the tango’s capability of pianist Arthur Rubinstein, Piazzolla began composition of tango masters such as Carlos Gardel, the dance became element. Though the works were originally written exploring nostalgia and tragic feeling with the composer’s lessons with Alberto Ginastera. Following the completion esteemed throughout the world though sometimes separately and frequently performed as individual pieces, own emotional predicament. of his Buenos Aires symphony in the early 1950s, he was considered risqué or even immoral by the authorities. Astor the Angel Suite comprises Milonga del ángel (composed Another ‘Parisian tango’ from the 1950s was Picasso, awarded a scholarship to study with Nadia Boulanger in Piazzolla’s concept of the tango was to progress beyond 1962), La muerte del ángel (The Death of the Angel) a homage to the great painter. Piazzolla sent the artist one Paris for four months. This eminent teacher encouraged him the dance form towards a more developed medium (1962), and Resurreción del ángel (Resurrection of the of his recordings but was disappointed when the to develop artistically through the tango rather than devote conveying fine elements of pathos and passion, longing Angel) (1965), in the form of a virtual triptych. The three authorisation to use the name in this title was forwarded to himself to progressive European genres of the era. and sensibility. movements express respectively the gentle, poignant nature him by a secretary rather than by a letter from Picasso On Piazzolla’s return to Buenos Aires, he formed Verano porteño (Summer in Buenos Aires) was one of of the angel, the fury and passion of death with aspects of himself. various ensembles, including the and four pieces originally written for Alberto Rodríguez serenity, and a final meditative mood contemplating Guardia nueva (New Guard) demonstrates Piazzolla’s the Quinteto , which performed at his club, the Muñoz’s play Melenita de oro (The Golden Mop of triumphant resurrection. delight in pushing the frontiers of tango into unprecedented Jamaica. In 1958 he lived for a while in Manhattan where Hair), staged in 1965. It became the first of his Las Cuatro Chau Paris (Bye-bye Paris) was written following artistic areas, stimulating the listener to awareness of further he assimilated more jazz elements into his music and Estaciones Porteñas (The Four Buenos Aires Seasons), Piazzolla’s period of study with Nadia Boulanger and musical possibilities. Finally, Sentido único (One-Way broadened the scope of his work. Becoming slightly which, like Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, express the changing dedicated to his friend, Édouard Pécourt, the owner of a Street), offers a jocular tribute to the Parisian one-way street disillusioned, as he had not yet broken through to the moods of the year. The suite was first recorded during a live record shop on the Rue du Louvre. At the time he signed system, an example of the composer’s renowned sense of American public at large, Piazzolla and his family went show by Piazzolla’s Quintet in May, 1970. Otoño porteño lucrative contracts with French companies agreeing to humour. back to Argentina in 1960, but his fervent advocacy of a (Autumn in Buenos Aires), Invierno porteño (Winter in compose and record tangos, writing no fewer than sixteen Graham Wade new order of tango continued with constant foreign tours. Buenos Aires), and Primavera porteño (Spring in Buenos By the 1980s Piazzolla’s music was famous world-wide Aires) provide a vivid sequence, each movement possessing Grateful acknowledgement in the compilation of these notes is due to Le Grand Tango: The Life and Music of Astor and, moreover, began to find acceptance in his native its own colourful themes. Piazzolla by María Susana Azzi and Simon Collier, published by Oxford University Press, 2000. Argentina, where his progressive concepts had at first been Balada para un loco (Ballad for a Madman) is the vigorously resisted. Piazzolla died in Buenos Aires in 1992, setting of a song by , the Uruguayan poet and

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Astor Piazzolla (1921–1992) tango historian, composed towards the end of the 1960s. over the next two months. The song begins, Alfredo Gobbi (1912-1965), composer, violinist, Astor Piazzolla, born at Mar del Plata, Argentina in 1921, and was described in the New York Times as ‘the modern arranger and bandleader, was one of the early twentieth Ya sé que estoy piantao, piantao, piantao, emigrated with his family to New York in 1924. As a child master of tango music’. A British periodical commented century pioneers of the tango. He made his professional No ves que va la luna rodando por Callao; prodigy he learned to play the bandoneón, the square-built that ‘Piazzolla’s tangos will live as long as music is début at the age of thirteen and later played in bands with (I know I am mad, mad, mad, button accordion or concertina, popular in Argentinian appreciated for its ability to convey human emotions’. the leading tangueros of the epoch. He founded his own Do you not see the moon rolling along the tango orchestras. When in 1933 Carlos Gardel (1890-1935), Piazzolla’s prolific range of compositions, some 750 in band in 1942 and made a number of recordings for RCA- Avenida Callao?) the greatest of all tango singers, came to the United States, all, incorporate diverse influences such as European Victor from 1947 onwards, composing many new works of Piazzolla became Gardel’s translator and occasional traditions, jazz and popular elements, while retaining at The work was entered for a competition in the First Latin his own and offering fresh perspectives on traditional accompanist. Gardel wanted the boy to tour with him as an their core an essential and unmistakable Argentinian American Festival of Song and Dance in November 1969, favourites. Piazzolla regarded Gobbi as ‘the father of all assistant, but Piazzolla’s father refused to let him go. identity. His works include theatre music, film scores, causing great controversy for its unconventional approach. who have done the modern tango’ and his Retrato de Tragically, Gardel was killed at Medellín airfield, Colombia concertos, chamber music, and songs, as well as many It was awarded only second prize, the winner being the Alfredo Gobbi (Portrait of Alfredo Gobbi) is an affectionate on 4th June, 1935, along with José Corpas Moreno, who instrumental pieces available in a variety of solo more traditional Hasta el último tren (Until the Last Train) tribute to the older maestro. had gone in Piazzolla’s place. arrangements for piano, bandoneón, and guitar. by Jorge Sobral. Balada para un loco, however, was an Adiós Nonino (Farewell Nonino) is an elegiac piece Piazzolla returned to Argentina in 1937, eventually The history of the tango extends back to the nineteenth immediate success, its initial recording selling some written following the death of the composer’s father, joining Aníbal Troilo’s tango band in Buenos Aires. but he century having strong associations with both the 150,000 copies by March 1970. Vicente, in October 1959. Piazzolla regarded this as the yearned to develop the tango into a more profoundly Andalusian tango and the Cuban habanera. In particular The tango-milonga is a strictly instrumental form with finest tune he ever composed, and performed it many expressive form where the music was ‘for the ear as well as the tango found a fertile home among the slums of Buenos a distinct rhythmic character, much performed by popular hundreds of times in at least twenty arrangements. In a for the feet’, an attitude at first resented among the leading Aires in the early twentieth century, where a vigorous orchestras in Buenos Aires. Piazzolla explores the tango’s similar vein, La misma pena (The Same Sadness) is a tango practitioners. On the recommendation of the great tradition became established. Later, owing to the influence more introspective aspects and also incorporates a religious deeply melancholic work uniting the tango’s capability of pianist Arthur Rubinstein, Piazzolla began composition of tango masters such as Carlos Gardel, the dance became element. Though the works were originally written exploring nostalgia and tragic feeling with the composer’s lessons with Alberto Ginastera. Following the completion esteemed throughout the world though sometimes separately and frequently performed as individual pieces, own emotional predicament. of his Buenos Aires symphony in the early 1950s, he was considered risqué or even immoral by the authorities. Astor the Angel Suite comprises Milonga del ángel (composed Another ‘Parisian tango’ from the 1950s was Picasso, awarded a scholarship to study with Nadia Boulanger in Piazzolla’s concept of the tango was to progress beyond 1962), La muerte del ángel (The Death of the Angel) a homage to the great painter. Piazzolla sent the artist one Paris for four months. This eminent teacher encouraged him the dance form towards a more developed medium (1962), and Resurreción del ángel (Resurrection of the of his recordings but was disappointed when the to develop artistically through the tango rather than devote conveying fine elements of pathos and passion, longing Angel) (1965), in the form of a virtual triptych. The three authorisation to use the name in this title was forwarded to himself to progressive European genres of the era. and sensibility. movements express respectively the gentle, poignant nature him by a secretary rather than by a letter from Picasso On Piazzolla’s return to Buenos Aires, he formed Verano porteño (Summer in Buenos Aires) was one of of the angel, the fury and passion of death with aspects of himself. various ensembles, including the Octeto Buenos Aires and four pieces originally written for Alberto Rodríguez serenity, and a final meditative mood contemplating Guardia nueva (New Guard) demonstrates Piazzolla’s the Quinteto Nuevo Tango, which performed at his club, the Muñoz’s play Melenita de oro (The Golden Mop of triumphant resurrection. delight in pushing the frontiers of tango into unprecedented Jamaica. In 1958 he lived for a while in Manhattan where Hair), staged in 1965. It became the first of his Las Cuatro Chau Paris (Bye-bye Paris) was written following artistic areas, stimulating the listener to awareness of further he assimilated more jazz elements into his music and Estaciones Porteñas (The Four Buenos Aires Seasons), Piazzolla’s period of study with Nadia Boulanger and musical possibilities. Finally, Sentido único (One-Way broadened the scope of his work. Becoming slightly which, like Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, express the changing dedicated to his friend, Édouard Pécourt, the owner of a Street), offers a jocular tribute to the Parisian one-way street disillusioned, as he had not yet broken through to the moods of the year. The suite was first recorded during a live record shop on the Rue du Louvre. At the time he signed system, an example of the composer’s renowned sense of American public at large, Piazzolla and his family went show by Piazzolla’s Quintet in May, 1970. Otoño porteño lucrative contracts with French companies agreeing to humour. back to Argentina in 1960, but his fervent advocacy of a (Autumn in Buenos Aires), Invierno porteño (Winter in compose and record tangos, writing no fewer than sixteen Graham Wade new order of tango continued with constant foreign tours. Buenos Aires), and Primavera porteño (Spring in Buenos By the 1980s Piazzolla’s music was famous world-wide Aires) provide a vivid sequence, each movement possessing Grateful acknowledgement in the compilation of these notes is due to Le Grand Tango: The Life and Music of Astor and, moreover, began to find acceptance in his native its own colourful themes. Piazzolla by María Susana Azzi and Simon Collier, published by Oxford University Press, 2000. Argentina, where his progressive concepts had at first been Balada para un loco (Ballad for a Madman) is the vigorously resisted. Piazzolla died in Buenos Aires in 1992, setting of a song by Horacio Ferrer, the Uruguayan poet and

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Aquiles Delle-Vigne, Piano Born in Argentina, Aquiles Delle Vigne gave his first recital at the age of eight. At seventeen, a disciple of Claudio Arrau, he won the Grand Prix Albert Williams, the most prestigious competition in South America. This award ASTOR opened the doors of the most important concert halls of the continent for him. He later completed his training in Europe with Eduardo del Pueyo and György Cziffra. His career has brought twenty concert tours in Japan, and eight in Australia, the United States and Mexico. He appears now in leading festivals and concert venues throughout the PIAZZOLLA’S world, and has collaborated with conductors and orchestras of great distinction. Aquiles Delle Vigne enjoys an international reputation as a teacher and gives master-classes at the Salzburg Mozarteum and at the Rotterdam Conservatorium in The Netherlands. He is also a Visiting Professor at the Royal Northern College of Music in BEST TANGOS Manchester and a Professor of the Paris Schola Cantorum. He chairs and serves on the juries of the most important international competitions in all five continents. His vast discography with EMI HMV, BASF Harmonia Mundi, BMG-RCA Victor, Pavane and EMS has received outstanding praise. Aquiles Delle-Vigne, Piano

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Photo by Paolo Ruta Y K 8.572331 4 L A T Also available: I N A M E R I C 8.554760 8.555721 A N C L A S S 8.557782 8.570523 I C S NAXOS NAXOS Astor Piazzolla’s tangos, beloved around the world for their pathos, passion, longing and sensibility, are here given fresh interpretations in arrangements for piano by the Argentinean-born, Brussels-based pianist Aquiles Delle-Vigne. A disciple of Claudio Arrau and winner of the Grand Prix ‘Alberto Williams’, the most prestigious competition in South America, he has been hailed by Le Figaro as a ‘fantastic, incomparable pianist and 8.572331 Astor Piazzolla’s Best Tangos Astor Piazzolla’s Best Tangos artist’, while The New York Times characterized his playing as ‘aristocratic, sophisticated DDD and charming’. Piazzolla’s earthy yet highly developed music gains a new dimension of intimacy but also of power in the hands of this master of the keyboard. Playing Time 63:46 Astor PIAZZOLLA (1921–1992) Astor Piazzolla’s Best Tangos Las Cuatro Estaciones 8 Resurreción del ángel 4:46 Porteñas 19:54 9 Chau Paris 3:41 1 Verano porteño 5:45

0 Retrato de Alfredo Gobbi 5:04 www.naxos.com Printed & Assembled in USA Disc Made in Canada Booklet notes in English ൿ 2 Otoño porteño 5:08 1993. 3 Invierno porteño 3:53 ! Adiós Nonino 3:05

4 Primavera porteño 4:59 @ La misma pena 3:14 Ꭿ 5 Balada para un loco 4:14 # Picasso 3:56 Ltd. 2010 Naxos Rights International 6 Milonga del ángel 5:48 $ Guardia nueva 3:43 7 La muerte del ángel 2:08 % Sentido único 3:35 C Aquiles Delle-Vigne, Piano M 8.572331 Recorded at EMS Studios, Brussels, Belgium, 1989 • Engineer: Luc Romans 8.572331 Artistic Director: Nelson Delle-Vigne Fabbri • Booklet notes: Graham Wade Y Publishers: Lagos Editorial (Buenos Aires); except improvisations, not published Originally released on CNR Records (Belgium) CNRCD-9306 (1993) K Cover photos: Dancers © Batuque / Dreamstime.com; background © Claires / Dreamstime.com