Customer Reviews

Hommage A Piazzolla

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4 star:		(3)
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I first became aware of this CD several years ago as its melancholy strains wafted through the air of a bookstore through which I was browsing. My ears perked up...Piazzolla!!! Upon inquiry, I was shown the CD and I immediately purchased a copy. I couldn't wait to get home and listen to it at elevated volume. What a recording!! Kremer has captured and distilled the essence of Piazzolla's music. Every song is a masterpiece and nearly all of my favorite mid-period Piazzolla compositions are contained within. A special treat is the magnum opus which closes the set, a 12-minute rendering of Le Grand Tango with just Kremer's violin and the restrained passion of Vadim Sakharov's piano to lead your mind into another musical dimension. Gidon Kremer has since recorded a number of Piazzolla-related CDs and in so doing has set himself up as the unofficial interpreter of El Maestro's music. If you like Piazzolla, you are sure to enjoy this CD. I give it my highest recommendation.

I was captivated by this recording after hearing bits of it on the radio. It grabs you by the lapels.... and then it grows on you. These readings of Piazzola's works are not as urbane as Yo-Yo Ma's, not as dignified as the Eroica Trio's, but I'm gonna stick my non-Argentine neck out & say these Russian & French musicians (consummate artists; this is no sloppy-but-soulful performance) are closer to what I've grown to see as Piazzola's mournful, peculiar, desperate, perverse spirit. These are not tango arrangements for the faint of heart.

Ever have a moment where you loved someone so much you hated him?

Ever have a relationship you could not get out of your mouth, your mind, your heart, your system, but that you knew was over and done with forever and ever, and you'd never even see the other again?

Ever feel so happy you wanted to cry? No, sob? Wrenching, wracking sobs? From happiness, now.

Yes?

Have I got a CD for you: Hommage a Piazzolla, featuring Gidon Kremer.

Like many, I suspect, I have a mixed relationship to tango. When I put on a tango CD, I fear I'll be hearing something that sets my teeth to jangling and makes me want to slap someone in the face.

This isn't that. You could listen to most of this while sitting perfectly still, on a window sill, in fact, with the lights down low in your apartment, as you stare out at the rain-slicked city at night. A drink sits on a nearby table, unfinished...you have no will to finish it.

(It's hard not to imagine these things while listening to this music; really, it's all so poetic, cinematic, irresistable.)

At some point, though, you're probably not going to be able to sit still any more, and you'll have to put that rose in your teeth and cut a few moves.

Tango often sounds, to we non-Argentinians, like a parody of itself.

This CD does not.

Rather, when I put it on, not at all sure what to expect, I had one of those epiphanies that art can give you.

I had been brooding over a vexed relationship, one I did not understand, but knew was hurting me, not with any immediacy, but like a sore tooth that could stand to go a few more months before you get over your fear of the dentist to get it fixed.

What bugged me most of all was that I did not understand what was hurting. Rationally, I had no reason to feel troubled.

I put on this CD, with the relationship way in the back of my mind, and I just, immediately thought, "That's it. This music is explaining it all; this music is articulating everything."

Not bad.

This kind of music, music that allows in the true bittersweet of life, the unsolvable, the passion, is all too rare. If music that addresses those qualities is what you crave, this CD might be just what you need.

I was introduced to the music of Astor Piazzolla by the more than great violinist Gidon Kremer when he played a virtuosic tango as an encore. Whenever a rich new vein of wonderful music is opened to me, well, it makes for a bright and happy day. Not long after I picked up this CD and I can recommend it to you highly. This is more than just tango dance music, these are serious and contemplative compositions that use the Tango as the vehicle just as the classical and especially Baroque composers used their dance music for instrumental compositions. The music is full of mood, sensuality, rhythm, lush harmonies, dissonance, love, and pain. It is a music of contrasts and never gets too fussy or complicated. It wears its heart on its sleeve and draws us in because it is so charming.

Each piece has its own varied ensemble and the musicians in that ensemble also arrange the music for that track. Kremer leads from the violin in all of them, after all it is his album and his hommage to Piazzolla. However, the instruments used depend on the musical materials and mood of the piece. The piano is used quite a bit, and at times there are wind instruments. The bandoneón is required in tango, as well. It is a kind of concertina that was developed and made in Germany, but adopted in Argentina for the Tango. It has a wonderfully reedy sound and is played with buttons on each side of the bellows. Depending on the model, the note can change or stay the same whether you are pulling the bellows out or pushing them in, but in all of them there are two voices always at the octave and gives the bandoneón its characteristic sound.

The only composition not by Piazzolla is a very interesting tango included as a tribute to the master entitled "El sol sueño" by Jerzy Peterbushsky.

This is good music and a very enjoyable change of pace.

Six-year -old little girl was asked: 'How do you like this music?' She answered: 'This music comes from angels'. It is true.

No need to say more than the title

Another truly great rendition of Piazzolas music as done by Gidon Kremer and some other very fine musicians. The most fantastic piece, Buenos Aires hora cero, involves a harpsihord that dissolves all classical stereotypes of the instrument. Other pieces invole an excellent clarinet, and Cafe 1930 is a beautiful arrangement of the originally flute and guitar "Histoire du Tango." A very excellent cd, and a must for any Piazzola fan.

although i am an hispanophile and speak the language fluently, alas i do not tango. however, when you listen to this lovely music on a candle-lit evening over a glass of wine you'll find yourself snatching that lovely red rose from the vase on the table, clenching it between your teeth and strutting around the living room like the romantic, stud rooster you always knew you were. (ditto for females) this cd is entirely instrumental with the main instruments being violin, piano, clarinet, and the evocatively mournful bandoneon, which is a latin accordian-like instrument that pizzola (the tango master that composed these tunes) makes heavenly. the tunes are like the tango-controlled, exaggerated, bold, evocative, romantic, sensual. try it you'll like it.

The music and perforamance are so sensually played and achingly beautiful, the hairs on my neck and arms stand up on end. Listen to the opening track and tell me this is not sensually intriguing. Yes, tango is a very sensual art form and this CD is great for those very intimate moments. Of course, sex aside, the music is nothing short of a miracle unto itself. That I was to discover this CD just last year meant I was without it for 7 years since it was released. My life is richer for this and other Piazzolla works done by Kremer.
This CD has become one of those "island" CDs that you would take if you wer so to become deserted on one. You should be so lucky!

It was around 2 a.m. when I opened this pretty CD case for the first time.
I was sleepy. I was about to go to bed... You know this feeling at 2 a.m... but as soon as I heard first sound my ears sticked to speakers...
I drowned completely... my imagination went up to the night sky...
It was like fairy tale...