October Review of Piazzolla Videos

There were 534 videos of Piazzolla’s music posted on YouTube in the month of October, 2009. 396 (74%) 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. I have highlighted my journey through these many videos in this blog.

Thirty-nine percent of the performance videos were in the classical mode, 22% in Nuevo tango, 24% in pop and 15% in jazz.

Here are the most frequently performed pieces this month (Libertango was the most frequently played – 31% of the total; the others follow in order):

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

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 46 different countries. Italy and Argentina tied for posting the most videos: 63. The top ten posting countries are listed in order here:

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

There was only one original by Piazzolla posted – Soledad – and it has been previously posted.

Quality of performance varied from excellent to bizarre. My favorite of the month was Billie Jean done in the style of Piazzolla but since that is not an authentic Piazzolla composition, I will choose Lothar Hensel’s candombe inspired arrangement if Libertango as played by La Orquesta Sinfónica de Xalapa de la Universidad Veracruzana as best of the month. This choice is based on the creative use of percussion in the arrangement - it adds a color to the composition that I have not seen in other arrangements.

The choice for most bizarre this month is Dave Kim’s math project done to the tune of Libertango. Dave gets an A- on his project since he lost a few points by failing to create more math problems to fill the total available time in the video.

I have put a table with links to all 534 videos as well as some more information on the videos on the October link in my Piazzolla on Video website.