I missed this video when it first appeared on YouTube in April of this year but alert blog reader, Gabriel Caprav, noticed that I missed it and brought it to my attention today. It is an important video - perhaps the earliest video of Piazzolla's first quintet and they are playing what must have been at the time, one of the more controversial of Piazzolla's works: Revolucionario.
The video appears to be from Argentine television and Gabriel speculates it is footage from one of the Quintet's appearances on Tato Bores' show in the mid- to late 1960's. That would correspond roughly with the studio recording of the work in 1967 on the rare Polydor 10092, 33 rpm record which you can hear here. Members of the quintet on that recording were Piazzolla on bandoneón, Osvaldo Manzi on piano, Antonio Agri on violin, Kicho Díaz on contrabass and Oscar López Ruiz on guitar. I believe the musicians in the video are the same although I am not sure that is López Ruiz on guitar. Perhaps a more knowledgeable reader can confirm identities. The piece was recorded a second time by the First Quintet in the live performance recording, Piazzolla en el Regina.
For an Argentine tango fan of the period, Revolucionario, must have been difficult to comprehend and the title suggests that was, perhaps, the intent. It is contrapuntal and modal and it is easier to find Stravinsky than De Caro in the work. Interestingly, Piazzolla apparently never featured the work with his second quintet - perhaps because its ties to tango were too tenuous.
My thanks to Gabriel for bringing this video to my attention. In return, may I suggest you give some of your attention to one of Gabriel's creations - you may recognize the music.
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