Astor Piazzolla [photo: Quinteto Astor Piazzolla]
‘Traitor.’ ‘Apostate.’ ‘Little Lucifer.’ Astor Piazzolla was called all of these things and worse by his fellow Argentinians during his long career. It seems absurd now to think he received death threats in the 60s for breaking with tradition and taking tango off the dance floor and into the conservatory. Yet it was not only arch-conservatives who damned his innovations. Aníbal Troilo, the legendary
bandoneón player and bandleader for whom Piazzolla played in the early 40s – is on record as saying, “it bothers me the way he at times wants to frighten people with strange arrangements.”
How the legendary musician Astor Piazzolla put a touch of Bach into tango
The larger-than-life Argentine, who would have turned 100 in March, brought his early training in classical music to everything he did. 5 hours ago
Earlier this month was the birth centenary of the larger-than-life Argentine tango composer, bandoneon player and arranger Astor Piazzolla (March 11, 1921-July 4, 1992). To mark the anniversary,
The Strad, a classical music magazine in the UK, carried a tribute article headlined “How should we interpret tango music?” that offered classically trained violinists tips on how to tackle the music genre.
The article reminded me, yet again, how much classical music had meant to Piazolla when he was growing up. In recollections of his New York childhood, that can be found on the website Todo Tango, he said: “I attended four schools until I finished grade school. They expelled me for quarrelling. But at one of them I found music: A teacher used to play reco