Amazon.com essential recording
This three-CD set of crucial Astor Piazzolla recordings rounds out the historical portrait begun on the set's equally sprawling sibling,
Tangamente. Covering what might be comparatively called the "breakthrough" years of 1974-1983,
Piazzollissimo catches a host of LP-release material, featuring Piazzolla cutting swaths across genres, leading tango into jazz elements--even some jazz fusion. These packed CDs feature rumbling tango innovations, some of them perfectly in line with film-score mood-settings, some of them backed by a rhythmic pulse that Piazzolla began to ignore toward the end of the period covered in the box. The dynamite gems that close the book on this set feature a Munich string quartet, illuminating where tango could go when taken to the concert halls--a vision caught years later by the Kronos Quartet and Piazzolla on their short collaboration,
Five Tango Sensations. Classically challenging, traditionally challenging, and heavily dramatic, these compositions are essential listening to anyone deeply interested in Piazzolla's music.
--Andrew Bartlett
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