Keeping Tango Wild: The Official Astor Piazzolla Quintet

Description

From Bach’s mastery of counterpoint, to Fela Kuti’s invention of Afrobeat two centuries later, music history is littered with just a handful of names who can claim to have single-handedly defined a whole musical style.

Astor Piazzolla is one of those names.

The Argentinian composer/musician can claim ownership of the Nuevo Tango movement. Taking the timeless traditions of tango as a starting point, but dragging them from the dusty dancehalls and into the concert halls, Piazzolla simultaneously breathed fresh fire and academic vigour into beloved Latin forms. His influence is enduring: today Piazolla’s compositions are regularly programmed by symphony orchestras around the world, where this rhythmic sensual music finds an unlikely home amid the formal confines of classical music.

Yet these formal recitals lack the fire of his own performances. Piazzolla perfected and recorded his own works in a small, nubile band — closer to jazz or folk than classical in conception and execution — touring the world as a bandoneon player and bandleader up until the final years before his death in 1992. Keeping that fiery spirit alive is the Quinteto Astor Piazzolla, a versatile institution modelled after Piazzolla’s foundational 1960 band, made up of piano (Matías Feigin), violin (Serdar Geldymuradov), guitar (Armando de la Vega) and double bass (Cristian Basto), while Pablo Mainetti’s takes the master’s role on bandoneon.

Now the two-time Latin Grammy Award-winning ensemble is coming to Hong Kong. Kicking off at 20:00, the uninterrupted, 75-minute performance will be centred around the “Le Grand Tango,” the 1982 masterpiece dedicated to Mstislav Rostropovich, alongside foot-tapping favourites including “Escualo” and “Milonga loca,” plus the soulful reflection of “Soledad” and “Oblivion.”