Composed 1965-70, arranged 1991; 26 minutes

Argentine tango-master Astor Piazzolla developed the four movements of Las Cuatro Estaciones Porteñas (The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires) over several years in the late 1960s.  In 1970, it formed the highlight of the tenth anniversary concerts of Piazzolla’s Quinteto Nuevo Tango, an innovative group pushing well beyond traditional tango, featuring violin, piano, electric guitar, bass and Piazzolla’s own instrument, the bandonéon.  Echoes of Vivaldi can be heard in Piazzolla’s score, albeit to a tango beat, particularly in the closing measures of Invierno Porteño.  Like Vivaldi, Piazzolla works his way through the four seasons, giving each movement a programmatic title, beginning with ‘Buenos Aires Autumn.’  Unlike Vivaldi, Piazzolla’s main interest was not in the changing seasons themselves, but in portraying the personality of the people of Buenos Aires through the year – their passion, susceptibility, sensuality and more.  In 1991, violinist Gidon Kremer asked his long-time collaborator Ukraine-born composer Leonid Desyatnikov to bring the two works even closer together by casting Piazzolla’s music as a violin concerto.  The Russian composer further married the two works by casting each movement in Vivaldi’s characteristic three sections and including playful quotations from Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons, notably references to Vivaldi’s Summer in Piazzolla’s Winter and vice versa, reflecting the Earth's seasonal tilt toward and away from the sun.  

“My fingers are a machine gun . . . I play with violence; my bandoneon has to sing and shout.” 

(Astor Piazzolla)

Astor Piazzolla’s classic bandoneon, the Doble A, with buttons instead of keys: 38 for the RH and 33 for the L.  Each button produces two notes, depending on whether the bandoneón inflates or deflates.  The reeds are zinc.

— All program notes copyright © 2024 Keith Horner.  Comments welcomed: khnotes@sympatico.ca