Virtuoso Performance

Featuring soloist, Gennaro Desiderio, this video is a real treat. Desiderio provides the most aggressive and creative solo interpretation of Libertango that I have ever seen. The opening credenza is breathtaking. A virtuosic performance which, if it was not the encore to a great concert, should have been. Desiderio is a little loose with the pitch here and there but so is Yo-Yo Ma and no one complains.

This one is a candidate for video on the month on my Piazzolla Video website.

Tango for Adults

No, not the XXX kind of tango but rather the kind of tango that a friend of mine calls "adult tango" because adults can dance it without looking like fools. Much of the tango dancing backed by Piazzolla's music in YouTube videos is either the herky-jerky "tango" taught in American dance studios or the flamboyant, athletic "tango" which appears on stage in those touring tango shows or in those Buenos Aires clubs that sucker the tourists in for an expensive meal and an "authentic" tango show.

There was a video posted this week that looks like "adult tango" to me. It is smooth, flowing and sensual and respects the meter and intent of the music. Perhaps not quite "street authentic" but still something that adults could aspire to on the neighborhood dance floor.

Here it is - and the band is live and good (although I am not too fond of the sepia tone):



To learn more about Piazzolla videos, visit the Piazzolla Video site.

Russian Seasons

Piazzolla's "Four Seasons" are favorites in the classical world and one or more of them always show up in the top ten list of videos posted every month. There is a particularly good series just posted featuring the Kremlin Chamber Orchestra performing in the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory. The group is led by violinist, Misha Rachlevsky, and includes as soloists pianist, Vitaly Matveev, and cellist, Maxim Kozlov. I have rated all four performances with five stars and they are all candidates for best video of the month.

You can access an index to all four here and watch one example below.



To learn more about Piazzolla videos, visit the Piazzolla Video site.

Origin of New Piazzolla Videos

Carlos di Iorio reports through the Piazzolla.org forum that the two new videos featuring Piazzolla were from a television program not from a movie. Perhaps we will learn more later.

He also identifies the other members of the Quintet as:
Osvaldo Manzi: Piano
Antonio Agri: Violín
Oscar López Ruiz: Guitarra eléctrica
Enrique "Kicho" Díaz: Contrabajo

Carlos, thank you.