Composed 2014; Duration: 18 minutes

First BPO Performance: May 10-11, 2014 (Roman Mekinulov, cello; JoAnn Falletta, conductor)

Concierto en Tango was commissioned by the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra and premiered at Kleinhans Music Hall by the BPO, conductor JoAnn Falletta, and cellist Roman Mekinulov. The premiere was a spectacular success: “the longest and loudest rounds of applause I can recall” (Mary Kunz Goldman, The Buffalo News). Months later, the Toronto Symphony performed it with cellist Joseph Johnson and conductor Earl Lee. Within two years, Concierto en Tango would be performed over 25 times by orchestras worldwide to great critical and audience acclaim. Recorded by the BPO, Concierto en Tango was nominated for a 2015 Latin GRAMMY Award for Best Classical Contemporary Composition.

Composer Miguel del Aguila writes: “In 2012, Roman Mekinulov suggested to me the idea of writing a concerto in tango form that would explore the less classical sound and technique of the cello. I liked this idea, as the cello has the intensity and expressivity of a tango singer and is an excellent medium for such a work. While most people associate Tango with the 1920s Valentino films or the Tango Nuevo of Piazzolla, to many of us who grew up in Montevideo or Buenos Aires in the ‘50s and ‘60s, Tango has a very different connotation. It is associated with childhood memories of happy and prosperous times, with family gatherings where we as children often just enjoyed watching everyone dance. In that context, Tango carries a special nostalgia from that time and place in a society that no longer exists. Those were the times before the economic collapse of the ‘70s and the horrors of the ‘Guerra Sucia’ of the military dictatorships that followed. The imagery of these events is portrayed within the music of Concierto en Tango.”

“The harmonic language is conservative. I deliberately tried to avoid a ‘classical’ sound, and especially the overly intense romantic style of many cello concertos, which combined with the melodrama of tango would have resulted in a very dark work. Several humorous and light-hearted passages add a joyful side to the tango genre which is traditionally deprived of such positive emotions. The overall form is ABA – fast-slow-fast. The middle, slow section features the traditional cantabile and expressive qualities of the cello, while the outer fast sections require rhythmic precision, bow control, and accuracy of intonation in the highest registers of the instrument. Some of these fast sections challenge the performers with constant time signature shifts.”

“Concierto en Tango was written to honor the memory of my brother, Nelson del Aguila (1964-2012).” –Miguel del Aguila