After sitting in a box for more than twenty years a long forgotten video tape of a full Piazzolla concert has been found and shared this week on YouTube. There are very few videos of full concerts which makes this video of particular interest to Piazzolla fans. Today's featured video of the Quintet's performance of Adios Nonino is just one of the eight posted videos which fully capture the concert.
According to the Azzi/Collier book, Le Grand Tango, Piazzolla's Quintet made a quick tour of Mexico and Central America in the summer of 1984. Vocalist, Raúl Lavié, joined the quintet on the tour (and is featured in four of the videos). While not mentioned in Le Grand Tango, that tour evidently also included a stop in Caracas, Venezuela where today's video was made. The notes with the video suggest it was a brief visit with no time to assemble an audience, to rehearse, or to do a proper sound check (and apparently no time to tune the piano). The video was preserved on a U-Matic tape and is one of the first broadcasts in Venezuela to be recorded in stereo. The quality of the sound is quite good as is most of the video.
Many thanks to "BlackbirdRabbit" for finding and sharing the video.
If the video does not appear below, click here. Links to the other videos from the concert are provided below.
Additional concert videos: Lunfardo/Michelangelo 70, Los Pájaros Perdidos, La Bicicleta Blanca, Balada para mi Muerte, Balada para un Loco, Verano Porteño, and Mumuki.
Full audio of the concert can be downloaded here.
To learn more about Piazzolla videos, visit the Piazzolla Video site.
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Note added on 23 December, 2011: The poster of this video has added an additional piece of information about the arrangements behind this television performance. Hugo Carregal, an Argentine actor, singer and producer who lived in Venezuela and was very influential at RCTV convinced Piazzolla to fit the performance into a busy schedule. Were it not for Mr. Carregal's efforts, we would not be enjoying this video.
