Classical Music | Music for Trio

Recorded on 04/13/2006, uploaded on 01/19/2009

Musician's or Publisher's Notes

Primavera Porteña            Astor Piazzolla

Argentine composer Astor Piazzolla is regarded as the most important tango composer of the twentieth century.  Born to Italian immigrants in 1921, Piazzolla had a rich musical childhood.  He absorbed both the Argentine tango tradition while living in Buenos Aires, and American jazz while growing up in New York City.  Piazzolla studied the bandoneon from the age of nine, eventually becoming one of the greatest masters of the instrument.  He began to study composition with fellow Argentine Alberto Ginastera, and in 1954 won a scholarship to study with Nadia Boulanger in Paris.  It was Boulanger who encouraged Piazzolla to reinvigorate the tango form.

Cuatro Estaciones Porteñas (The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires) is a set of four tangos that Piazzolla wrote between 1964-1970 depicting the seasons of the port city Buenos Aires.  Primavera Porteña captures the exuberant mood of the celebration of spring. This "nuevo tango" mixes traditional tango with elements of jazz and classical music to create a dance form bursting with energy and spirit.    Thomas Cuffari

Courtesy of International Music Foundation.