September Review of Piazzolla Videos

There were 477 videos of Piazzolla’s music posted on YouTube in the month of September, 2009. 344 (72%) of the videos were performance videos featuring live performances. The others were videos which used Piazzolla’s music as a sound track for photo or video montages.

Forty-two percent of the performance videos were in the classical mode, 27% in Nuevo tango, 18% in pop and 13% in jazz.

Here are the most frequently performed pieces this month (Libertango was the most frequently played – 29% of the total; the others follow in order):

1. Libertango
2. Oblivion
3. Adios Nonino
4. Verano Porteño
5. Invierno Porteño
6. La muerte del ángel
7. Milonga del ángel
8. Histoire du tango – Bordel 1900
9. Balada para un loco
10. Histoire du tango – Café 1930

The top three on this list seem to be fairly stable month-to-month but the bottom seven change every month.

The performance videos came from 39 different countries. Italy posted the most videos: 59. The top ten posting countries are listed in order here:

1. Italy
2. Argentina
3. USA
4. Brazil
5. France
6. Spain
7. Japan
8. Russia
9. Germany
10. Switzerland

There were twelve video originals by Piazzolla posted – all but one had been previously posted. The new video was of Milva singing Rinascerò with the Piazzolla quintet in the Verona coliseum. It was unfortunately removed from the site by YouTube and the poster’s account was canceled.

Quality of performance varied from excellent to bizarre. There were a number of very good performances this month but one that stayed with me was the trio performance of Street Tango by Pablo Zinger, Jose Franch-Ballester and Young Song. It was my choice for best of the month.

The choice for most bizarre this month was more difficult. It came to a choice between a video of dancers on stilts, a man smoking a pipe to the tune of Balada para un loco, and a boogie woogie version of La Calle 92. I gave the award to the video of Libertango on stilts.

I have posted a table with links to all 477 videos as well as some more information on the videos on the September link in my Piazzolla on Video website.