There must be a story behind the choice of Escualo to accompany the action in today's video: a short film by Amal Abou-Setta titled You're Free. How did Amal Abou-Setta, a Writing Instructor in the Rhetoric and Composition Department at the American University in Cairo, come to know that song? Why did she choose it out of the millions of songs in our world? Her public Facebook page suggests her favorite musician is Ahmed El Nasser but I find no hints that Ahmed El Nasser is a Piazzolla fan. It appears that our only hope for resolving this mystery is a response from Ms. Abou-Setta herself.
It is an inspired choice. Escualo (the title translates to Shark) was composed in 1979 and is one of the most rhythmically challenging of Piazzolla's works. There is a constant uncertainty in the resolution of the rhythm - a feeling of unease is created in the listener. Perhaps the same feeling that Ms. Abou-Setta was aiming to create in her video.
There are two copies of the video posted below. They are identical except the second version contains English subtitles. If you are a non-Arabic speaker, I encourage you to watch the first one to see if you can interpret the message of the video from the actions of the actors and the music alone - then watch the second to see if you are correct. You may also be interested in her second video, Running all the way, which requires no subtitles and in an interview that Ms. Abou-Setta gave on Egyptian television (sorry, no English subtitles available on this one).
Note added on 17 June, 2010: After you view the videos, be sure and read the comment posted below the videos. Ms. Abou-Setta explains exactly how she came to choose Escualo for her video.
If the videos do not appear below, click here for the Arabic version and here for the English subtitle version.
To learn more about Piazzolla videos, visit the Piazzolla Video site.
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Queréme así, piantao
Google failed me. Today's video is clearly a dramatization of Piazzolla's encounter with Carlos Gardel in New York City in 1934. The scene unfolds just as described in the Azzi/Collier book, Le Grand Tango. The actor playing Gardel is one of the best Gardel impersonators, Angel Rico. The notes accompanying the video indicate it is from a movie about Piazzolla's life and the title of the video suggests the movie might be called, Queréme así, piantao.
Such a movie, of course, interests me. But Google, that source of all knowledge, yields no clues regardless of my best search efforts. To my surprise, an identical search on Microsoft's Bing brought the answer. The clip is from a 1997 movie, made for TV and written and directed by Eliseo Alvarez.
I hope to see more of the movie some day. While I am waiting, it looks like it is time to change my default search engine.
If the video does not appear below, click here.
To learn more about Piazzolla videos, visit the Piazzolla Video site.
Such a movie, of course, interests me. But Google, that source of all knowledge, yields no clues regardless of my best search efforts. To my surprise, an identical search on Microsoft's Bing brought the answer. The clip is from a 1997 movie, made for TV and written and directed by Eliseo Alvarez.
I hope to see more of the movie some day. While I am waiting, it looks like it is time to change my default search engine.
If the video does not appear below, click here.
To learn more about Piazzolla videos, visit the Piazzolla Video site.
Monday, June 14, 2010
Addition and Subtraction
There are musicians who are adders and musicians who are subtracters. The adders approach is to enhance a tune with turns, trills, mordents, passing notes and complex chordal progressions. The subtracters enhance a tune by deconstructing it and removing the nonessential elements which distract the mind from the essence of the music. Today's video features a solo piano performance of Oblivion by a subtracter whose own identity has been subtracted to the single name - Emmanuel.
Oblivion was composed as the primary theme for the movie Enrico IV. It is Piazzolla's third most popular composition performed on YouTube, behind only Libertango and Adios Nonino. On the average, slightly more than one new performance of Oblivion is posted on YouTube every day. And of those performances, it is rare to find one by a subtracter which makes it a special pleasure to view this sparse, simple and elegant distillation of one of Piazzolla's most fluid and melodic compositions.
The notes with the video tell us that Emmanuel is a student at Arcadie School of Music in Poitiers, France - perhaps specifically a student of Manolo Gonzalez, a Professor with broad interests from Piazzolla to Gregorian chants. The video is one of a series made by Vasily Koussev and Rodolphe Gaudin of Arcadie students performing at the concert hall, Carré Bleu. You can see the others at the zunzemma YouTube channel.
Thank you Emmanuel for a beautiful performance - even with those few turns, mordents and trills.
If the video does not appear below, click here.
Additional information and correction added 16 June, 2010: Thanks to a note from Martine Lecomte, I have learned that the full name of the pianist is Emmanuel Kouassi and the performance was filmed at Arcadie not at Carré Bleu. However Emmanuel along with other Arcadie students will be performing at Carré Bleu next week on the 22nd.
To learn more about Piazzolla videos, visit the Piazzolla Video site.
Oblivion was composed as the primary theme for the movie Enrico IV. It is Piazzolla's third most popular composition performed on YouTube, behind only Libertango and Adios Nonino. On the average, slightly more than one new performance of Oblivion is posted on YouTube every day. And of those performances, it is rare to find one by a subtracter which makes it a special pleasure to view this sparse, simple and elegant distillation of one of Piazzolla's most fluid and melodic compositions.
The notes with the video tell us that Emmanuel is a student at Arcadie School of Music in Poitiers, France - perhaps specifically a student of Manolo Gonzalez, a Professor with broad interests from Piazzolla to Gregorian chants. The video is one of a series made by Vasily Koussev and Rodolphe Gaudin of Arcadie students performing at the concert hall, Carré Bleu. You can see the others at the zunzemma YouTube channel.
Thank you Emmanuel for a beautiful performance - even with those few turns, mordents and trills.
If the video does not appear below, click here.
Additional information and correction added 16 June, 2010: Thanks to a note from Martine Lecomte, I have learned that the full name of the pianist is Emmanuel Kouassi and the performance was filmed at Arcadie not at Carré Bleu. However Emmanuel along with other Arcadie students will be performing at Carré Bleu next week on the 22nd.
To learn more about Piazzolla videos, visit the Piazzolla Video site.
Saturday, June 12, 2010
Bono Plays Piazzolla
Yes, Bono plays Piazzolla. No, not that Bono - I mean Alberto Bono. Alberto is probably the more talented of the two Bono's - he not only plays the bandoneón with an enormous amount of feeling for the tango, he is also a world class artist whose painting also capture the emotion of the tango. Today's video features Bono in his quintet playing the Piazzolla classic, Lo que vendra. Lo que vendra was composed in 1956 or 1957 and was used as the main theme for the 1958 movie, Dos basuras.
Alberto Bono was born in 1943 and began playing the bandoneón at the age of six. He has played the music of Astor Piazzolla all over the world and in 1998 issued a CD of Piazzolla's music titled, El Tangonauta. Joining Bono in today's video are J. Paladini on piano, Néstor Madeo on guitar, Eduardo Pedruelo on bass and R. Cigno on drums. You can hear more of their work and find a wonderful collection of videos which show Bono's paintings on norber00's YouTube Channel. It is worth a visit. His work is well enough known that he was the subject of a movie, Mariposas de colores, directed by Fernando Foulques. In 2006, he was presented a special award as an outstanding artist by his hometown, Rosario, Argentina.
Please enjoy the work of this artist. If the video does not appear below, click here.
To learn more about Piazzolla videos, visit the Piazzolla Video site.
Alberto Bono was born in 1943 and began playing the bandoneón at the age of six. He has played the music of Astor Piazzolla all over the world and in 1998 issued a CD of Piazzolla's music titled, El Tangonauta. Joining Bono in today's video are J. Paladini on piano, Néstor Madeo on guitar, Eduardo Pedruelo on bass and R. Cigno on drums. You can hear more of their work and find a wonderful collection of videos which show Bono's paintings on norber00's YouTube Channel. It is worth a visit. His work is well enough known that he was the subject of a movie, Mariposas de colores, directed by Fernando Foulques. In 2006, he was presented a special award as an outstanding artist by his hometown, Rosario, Argentina.
Please enjoy the work of this artist. If the video does not appear below, click here.
To learn more about Piazzolla videos, visit the Piazzolla Video site.
Friday, June 11, 2010
Pedro y Pedro
Pedro y Pedro is perhaps the only solo bandoneón work composed by Piazzolla. He composed extended bandoneón solos within a number of other works and also arranged some classic tangos for solo bandoneón but I believe Pedro y Pedro stands alone in his oeuvre. Today's video features a sensitive performance of Pedro y Pedro by bandoneónist, Hugo Satorre. Satorre is a multi-instrumentalist but has focused on the bandoneón for the past ten years or so. He is in demand as a session musician and has played with many of today's better tango groups including Otros Aires, Quatrotango and Planetangos. You will find his biographical information on the latter two sites. Take the opportunity to watch the fingerwork as you view the video - the layout of the bandoneón keyboard requires exceptional dexterity and Satorre certainly has it.
Pedro y Pedro was composed in 1981 as a tribute to Piazzolla's bandoneónist predecessors: Pedro Maffia and Pedro Laurenz. To my knowledge, he never recorded the piece commercially nor performed it in public although the Azzi/Collier book, Le Grand Tango, reports that he did play it, and record it on his own tape recorder, for friends on his sixtieth birthday. The work has received serious academic study as the subject of Luis Caruana's PhD thesis. If you are interested in following the music as Satorre plays, you can find the score on these three pages: 1, 2 and 3. While Piazzolla's score for the work was once viewable on the web, I believe the hand written score on these pages is the work of Carunana or someone else, not Piazzolla.
If the video does not appear below, click here.
To learn more about Piazzolla videos, visit the Piazzolla Video site.
Pedro y Pedro was composed in 1981 as a tribute to Piazzolla's bandoneónist predecessors: Pedro Maffia and Pedro Laurenz. To my knowledge, he never recorded the piece commercially nor performed it in public although the Azzi/Collier book, Le Grand Tango, reports that he did play it, and record it on his own tape recorder, for friends on his sixtieth birthday. The work has received serious academic study as the subject of Luis Caruana's PhD thesis. If you are interested in following the music as Satorre plays, you can find the score on these three pages: 1, 2 and 3. While Piazzolla's score for the work was once viewable on the web, I believe the hand written score on these pages is the work of Carunana or someone else, not Piazzolla.
If the video does not appear below, click here.
To learn more about Piazzolla videos, visit the Piazzolla Video site.
Thursday, June 10, 2010
May 2010 Review of Piazzolla Videos
There were 711 videos of Piazzolla’s music posted on YouTube in the month of May, 2010, an increase of 46% over May, 2009. 515 (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. I highlighted my journey through these many videos in this blog.
Forty-three percent of the performance videos were in the classical mode, 17% in tango nuevo, 24% in pop and 16% in jazz.
Here are the most frequently performed pieces this month (Libertango was the most frequently played – 30% of the total; the others follow in order):
1. Libertango
2. Oblivion
3. Adios Nonino
4. Verano Porteño
5. Invierno Porteño
6. Primavera Porteña
7. Otoño Porteño
8. Histoire du tango - Nightclub 1960
9. Balada para un loco
10. Tango etudes
The top three on this list seem to be fairly stable month-to-month but the bottom seven change every month. Eighty-seven different compositions were covered in the videos this month.
The performance videos came from 53 different countries. Argentina posted the most videos: 69. The top ten posting countries are listed in order here:
1. Argentina
2. USA
3. Italy
4. Russia
5. Spain
6. Japan
7. Brazil
8. Germany
9. France
10. Netherlands
There were eleven Piazzolla original performances posted and they all had been previously posted.
Quality of performance varied from excellent to bizarre. My choice for best of the month is the performance of Yo soy Maria by Julia Zenko and Gidon Kremer's Kremerata Musica. If the video does not appear below, click here.
The choice for most bizarre this month is a video of Libertango being performed by a solo laugher. If the video does not appear below, click here.
I have put a table with links to all 711 videos as well as some more information on the videos on the May, 2010 link in my Piazzolla on Video website.
Forty-three percent of the performance videos were in the classical mode, 17% in tango nuevo, 24% in pop and 16% in jazz.
Here are the most frequently performed pieces this month (Libertango was the most frequently played – 30% of the total; the others follow in order):
1. Libertango
2. Oblivion
3. Adios Nonino
4. Verano Porteño
5. Invierno Porteño
6. Primavera Porteña
7. Otoño Porteño
8. Histoire du tango - Nightclub 1960
9. Balada para un loco
10. Tango etudes
The top three on this list seem to be fairly stable month-to-month but the bottom seven change every month. Eighty-seven different compositions were covered in the videos this month.
The performance videos came from 53 different countries. Argentina posted the most videos: 69. The top ten posting countries are listed in order here:
1. Argentina
2. USA
3. Italy
4. Russia
5. Spain
6. Japan
7. Brazil
8. Germany
9. France
10. Netherlands
There were eleven Piazzolla original performances posted and they all had been previously posted.
Quality of performance varied from excellent to bizarre. My choice for best of the month is the performance of Yo soy Maria by Julia Zenko and Gidon Kremer's Kremerata Musica. If the video does not appear below, click here.
The choice for most bizarre this month is a video of Libertango being performed by a solo laugher. If the video does not appear below, click here.
I have put a table with links to all 711 videos as well as some more information on the videos on the May, 2010 link in my Piazzolla on Video website.
Thursday, June 3, 2010
Le Grand Tango - Kleinhapl and Woyke
It is rare to find posted video of Le grand tango, much less two excellent performances posted in the space of two days. Today's video of Friedrich Kleinhapl and Andreas Woyke, both from Austria, performing Le grand tango at the Fazioli Concert Hall in Sacile, Italy is the second of two fine performances this week. As impressed as I was with the performance of Beznosikov in the previous blog, this performance moves to the top of my list as the best performance of Le grand tango on YouTube.
Kleinhapl is exceptionally expressive and delivers a flowing performance, capturing the emotional content of the music as few others have. His cello has a voice well suited for the music. And, unlike many performances, the cellist is, in this case, matched with a pianist who delivers nuance and finds the rhythmic, tango structure that 99% of pianists miss in the piece. I see no hints that either of these musicians have traveled to Argentina to study tango but they appear to have a natural feel for the music and I hope they develop some additional Piazzolla interpretations. I think a reading of the Histoire du tango by the duo would be very interesting (particularly if they can obtain the Ribchester piano arrangement of the guitar/piano part).
If the video does not appear below, click here.
Note: This blog was modified on 24 February, 2011 to replace the original video which was removed. This is a different performance but is equally good.
To learn more about Piazzolla videos, visit the Piazzolla Video site.
Follow Piazzolla on Video on Twitter.
Kleinhapl is exceptionally expressive and delivers a flowing performance, capturing the emotional content of the music as few others have. His cello has a voice well suited for the music. And, unlike many performances, the cellist is, in this case, matched with a pianist who delivers nuance and finds the rhythmic, tango structure that 99% of pianists miss in the piece. I see no hints that either of these musicians have traveled to Argentina to study tango but they appear to have a natural feel for the music and I hope they develop some additional Piazzolla interpretations. I think a reading of the Histoire du tango by the duo would be very interesting (particularly if they can obtain the Ribchester piano arrangement of the guitar/piano part).
If the video does not appear below, click here.
Note: This blog was modified on 24 February, 2011 to replace the original video which was removed. This is a different performance but is equally good.
To learn more about Piazzolla videos, visit the Piazzolla Video site.
Follow Piazzolla on Video on Twitter.
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