Tangos…and Something More
Grupo Encuentros/Alicia Terzian
Navona Records 6246
Total Time: 60:51
Recording: ****/****
Performance: ****/****
Founded in 1979, Grupo Encuentros performs works of Latin American and Argentine composers in concerts both at home and in festivals around the world. For this album, their founding director Alicia Terzian has carefully chosen thirteen unique explorations of the popular form of the tango. Perhaps today it is the music of Astor Piazzolla that has brought this form to the classical art world blending both orchestral styles with folk rhythms and instruments in many unique pieces. Three of his works appear on the album. The result is an album here full of engaging melodies both from traditional and more familiar tangos to recent compositions in the form. Performances range from solo and piano to slightly larger ensembles.
The sort of Palm Court style quality greets the listener as the album opens with Aguiles Roggero’s Mimi Pinzon (beautifully performed by violinist Sergio Polizz). This is revisited in some of the older classic works such as Lucio DeMare’s beautiful Malena (sung here by Marta Blanco) and an engaging performance of Los Mareados by Juan Carlos Cobian. Cristal by Mariano Mores and later Juan Jose Castro’s Lloron, moves us more into avant-garde styles with unusual sounds, spoken text, and dark writing. Castro’s work does have some rather explosive tango moments reminiscent of Piazzolla’s style. It is followed by a more modern tango by Piazzolla. Picasso has some rather intriguing chromaticism that is explored against a rather disjunct melodic line echoed in the accompaniment pattern in this piano work. One of two selections from his Four Buenos Aires Stations follows. The other is featured as the penultimate track. One can almost here how he deconstructs and reorganizes the tango in these pieces, transforming them into something more. Both are in new versions for piano trio arranged by Terzian. Her own Argentino Hasta la Muerte is also featured, another modern intense piece. One of the more unusual expressions must be Tango Lunar by Finnish composer Jukka Tienssuu. This illustrates the way tango has inspired composers from other parts of the world. Tienssuu’s creation is a blend of sounds and texts that reference tango rhythms along the soundscape created here in an almost science-fiction like style. In a more traditional harmonic approach, there is the recent work En el Bar…Como un Tango by Roque de Pedro which he dedicated to this group in 1989. It is a beautifully-rich work honoring the more melodic traditions of the tango with moving writing. It is followed by Terzian’s rather moving Un Argentino de Vuelta which has an excellent melodic idea that goes through several color changes. The piano sometimes transports us to a jazz club with its reflective style in one of the album’s highlights. Bandoneon performer and composer Daniel Binelli composed the final work on the album. Llamado de tambores takes its inspiration from a Uruguayan rhythm called the candombe. This helps bring the album to an equally satisfying close.
Those who have an interest in the way tango has moved into the realm of serious art music will certainly want to pick this album up. There are several familiar traditional works, performed here in arrangements that really highlight the performers of Grupo Encuentros. These are as transformed in the hands of the ensemble as the composers transform the tango itself in the many new works utilizing this tantalizing rhythm. The music is lovingly played throughout with the extra bite needed for the more modern pieces working well to engage the listener with their dramatic interpretations. So, not quite an easy outing to the tango court, but certainly one worth revisiting often.
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