Sérgio & Odair Assad Play Piazzolla

Astor Piazzolla (Composer), Sergio Assad (Performer), Odair Assad (Performer) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Performer: Sergio Assad, Odair Assad
• Composer: Astor Piazzolla
• Audio CD (July 17, 2001)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Nonesuch
• ASIN: B00005MIZX
• Also Available in: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #51,423 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #89 in Music > World Music > Latin Music > Tango

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

34 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Vintage Guitar Magazine Review, July 18, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Sérgio & Odair Assad Play Piazzolla (Audio CD)

At their best, Brazilian brothers and guitar duo Sérgio and Odair Assad play as if they were one person---one person blessed with four arms. With their six previous albums for Nonesuch, they have won renown around the globe for their lush, multi-faceted sound, rich in counterpoints and rhythmic adventure. Since their New York City concert debut as teenagers in 1969, the Assad brothers have collaborated with artists such as cellist Yo-Yo Ma and violinist Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg. Along the way, they have recorded pieces by composers as varied as Scarlatti and Bach, George Gershwin and Argentine neuvo tanguero Astor Piazzolla. The Assads first meet Piazzolla in the 1970s when they were young music students in Rio de Janeiro. Piazzolla was then reaping his first great rewards for his New Tango, and Brazil was one of the first countries to rave over him, even more so than his homeland. After hearing the Assads play a guitar transcription of one of his own pieces for him at a dinner party in Paris in 1983, Piazzolla vowed to write a guitar duet dedicated to them. The composition, "Tango Suite," has since become a modern classic, and following Piazzolla's death in 1991, the brothers have kept the master's music as a central part of their repertoire. This new album is dedicated to Piazzolla's memory, and features nine of his compositions. They range from "Tango Suite" to parts of Piazzolla's stunning celebration of the four seasons of Buenos Aires. Also included are earlier compositions that have almost been forgotten, chief among them the glorious tribute to Piazzolla's mentor, master bandoneonist Anibal Troilo, "Suite Troileana." The pieces played by just the brothers on this album are charmed by a beauty and lyricism rare among guitar duets. They breathe a certain joy and happiness into the melancholic moodiness of Piazzolla's compositions---due in large part to the light sound of their guitarwork versus the original composer's bandoneon, which is without doubt one of the saddest-sounding instruments of all time. Yet the songs where the Assads are joined by the violins of Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg and Fernando Suarez Paz or Marcelo Nisinman's bandoneon have even more impact with the third dimension coming from the added instruments providing counterpoint to the guitars. This is a stunning album.

24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sublimely Stupendous, December 20, 2001

By 

Kurt Harding "bon vivant" (Boerne TX) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Sérgio & Odair Assad Play Piazzolla (Audio CD)

Frankly, I didn't know how I would like this CD. The song selection is marvelous, but I own the Assad brothers' Alma Brazileira and find it to be very uneven and was a little afraid I'd find the same here. I did not and was instead very pleasantly surprised.
This CD bears some comparison to Al DiMeola's Plays Piazzolla album. Both are great albums, but the Assads concentrate more on fidelity to the spirit of the compositions and are less given to experimental wanderings than Di Meola.
Its hard to argue with the choice of music played here. Tango Suite is a difficult piece and rarely offered, but the Assads pull it off wth alacrity. The Suite Troileana is another rarely performed and very demanding piece given a judicious rendering here.
My favorites are a very melancholy rendition of the classic Invierno Porteno, Primavera Portena, Decarissimo and a spirited and very competent interpretation of the rarely performed masterpiece Francanapa.
It helps that Piazzolla violinist Fernando Suarez Paz is present on many tracks. His duo with Odair Assad on Bordel 1900 is exquisitely delicate and dreamlike.
If you like Piazzolla, if you like DiMeola, then you are almost sure to like this sublimely stupendous musical feast. My respect for the talent of the Assad brothers has grown enormously and I recommend this CD most highly.

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Musical grandeur, November 21, 2002

By 

Enrique Torres "Rico" (San Diegotitlan, Califas) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Sérgio & Odair Assad Play Piazzolla (Audio CD)

The other reviewers have given this disc it's due superlatives and I would have to concurr, it is sublime. You will not find a more beautiful, rhythmic or enchanting piece of music. As soothing as it is invigorating the guitar work is a marvel. I play this disc constantly and never seem to ge tired of it. You seem to hear new things with each listen, the guitar work is more dazzling each time. Being somewhat of a novice when it comes to the works of Piazzola I find that this disc serves as a good reference point for becoming more familiar with his compositions that were infused with his impecable standards of Argentine tango. This is definitely an excellent disc that shows off the talents of the fast and furious fingering of the frets by Sergio and Odair Assad. Recommneded for guitar afficionados who love the sound of the violin and bandoneon blended to perfection. These are Piazolla masterpieces that lovers of world beat who like their music flavored with a spicy tango beat will enjoy year after year.