Piazzolla passes

Synopsis

On today’s date in 1992, lovers of the tango had good reason to be sad. The great Argentinean composer and bandoneón virtuoso Astor Piazzolla had died in Buenos Aires at the age of 71.

Now, the bandoneón is a close relation of the accordion, and for it Piazzolla composed new music inspired by the tango, an Argentinian dance form that originated in working-class dancehalls. While still a teenager, Piazzolla had played bandoneón in the orchestra of Carlos Gardél, the most famous tango singer of the 1930s. Eventually, Piazzolla formed his own band, which became famous throughout South America.

But Piazzolla had a burning desire to write concert music, and won a scholarship to study composition in Paris with Nadia Boulanger. She encouraged him to explore the possibilities inherent in the music he knew best, and so Piazzolla set about “reinventing” the tango. The result was dubbed “nuevo tango,” as vital as the old ones, but often dark and brooding.

When asked why these “new tangos” were so melancholy, Piazzolla replies. "Not because I'M sad,” Piazzolla replied. “Not at all.  I'm a happy guy.  … No, my music is sad because the TANGO is sad — sad and dramatic, but not pessimistic.”

Music Played in Today's Program

Astor Piazzolla (1921 - 1992) Tres minutos con la realidad Nestor Marconi, bandoneon; Yo Yo Ma, cello; ensemble Sony Classical 63122

On This Day

Births

• 1878 - English composer and pianist Josef Holbrooke, in Croydon

• 1895 - English composer Gordon Jacob, in London

• 1897 - German-born Israeli composer Paul Ben-Haim (originally Frankenburger), in Munich

• 1918 - American composer George Rochberg, in Paterson, N.J.

• 1926 - American composer and teacher Kenneth Gaburo, in Somerville, N.J.

Deaths

• 1992 - Argentinian composer and bandonion virtuoso Astor Piazolla, age 71, in Buenos Aires

Premieres

• 1931 - R. Vaughan Williams: ballet, "Job (A Masque for Dancing)," in London

• 1990 - Ellen Taaffe Zwilich: Clarinet Quintet, at a Chamber Music Northwest concert in Portland, Ore. featuring clarinetist David Shifrin

• 1996 - Stephen Paulus: "Partita Appassionata," for violin and piano, by William Preucil and Arthur Rowe, at the Seattle Chamber Music Festival

• 2000 - Leslie Bassett: Concerto for Alto Saxophone and Orchestra, during a World Saxophone Congress at Pierre Mercure Hall, Montreal, with soloist Clifford Leaman, and the Orchestre Symphonique de Laval, Louis Lavigueur, conducting;

Others

• 1877 - Polish harpsichordist Wanda Landowska is born in Warsaw