Astor Piazzolla - Bandoneon Concerto "Aconcagua"; Tangazo; Adios Nonino

Astor PIAZZOLLA (1921-1992) 

Aconcagua, Concerto for bandoneon, strings and timpani 

Tangazo, Variations on Buenos Aires

Oblivion

Meditango 

Adios Nonino 

Bandoneon

Zita

Filippo Arlia (piano)

Cesare Chiacchiaretta (bandoneon)

Orchestra Filarmonica della Calabria

Filippo Arlia

Recorded: 9-12 September 2021 at Colonia S.Benedetto, Cetraro (CS) Ital

Review:

Argentine Astor Piazzolla (1921-1992) is without a doubt his homeland's most important/famous composer. With his pieces and his love of the bandoneón, he has effectively created the foundation for the melancholic, temperamental and sensual (sub)genre, Nuevo tango.

Piazzolla's compositional quality and strengths can be heard very clearly on the new Italian tribute album, on which Cesare Chiacchiaretta plays bandoneón and Filippo Arlia plays piano and conducts the Calabrian Philharmonic Orchestra. 

The album opens with Aconcagua – a concerto in three movements for bandoneón, string orchestra and percussion. The work is lively, imaginative and precisely temperamental and instrumentally embraces the milonga – the Argentine improvisational song.

This is followed by several of Piazzolla’s other well-known works – including numbers such as Oblivion, Meditango and Adiós Nonino . And personally – yes, I never get tired of hearing, for example, Oblivion . Not at all when the artistic quality level with which the composition is performed is like this. I am simply drawn by the song’s melancholy and its simultaneous strength; by its substance and many twists; by its image-creating qualities. And in this case: especially by Chiacchiaretta’s excessive handling of the instrument.