Tango Suite (arr. Julian Milone)
ASTOR PIAZZOLLA
Born March 11, 1921, Mar de Plata, Argentina
Died July 4, 1992, Buenos Aires

Julian Milone (b. 1958) studied composition and the violin at the Royal College of Music, then joined the Philharmonia Orchestra in 1983 at the age of 25. He has made his reputation as an arranger, recasting works from the classical repertory for groups of violins over the harmonic foundation of a doublebass. SummerFest audiences have enjoyed several of these.

Piazzolla wrote most of his tangos for a quintet that consisted of bandoneon, piano, violin, electric guitar and bass, but this music translates easily into arrangements. Julian Milone has written of his intentions as he made the arrangements heard on this program: "Having four violins and a double bass for this Tango Suite, I have kept as much as possible to Piazzolla's own sound world, but within a more classical context. The violin can be as percussive as a piano, can easily replicate a guitar with pizzicato and can produce the depth of expression of Piazzolla's own instrument, the bandoneon. Add to this the violin's own innate qualities of sound (not forgetting the double bass!), and the virtuosic possibilities within the group are there for all to see."

Piazzola wrote Death of an Angel (La Muerte del Angel) for his Quinteto Nuevo Tango, which he founded shortly after his return to Buenos Aires from New York in 1960. One of his most popular tangos, it opens with a sharply-inflected chromatic episode, full of driving rhythms and angular shapes. A more reflective episode leads to a return of the opening material. The brief Vayamos al Diablo, with its deep and driving ostinato, does sound suitably diabolic.

Oblivion comes from the sultry side of the tango. Over the melting rhythms of the opening, the haunting and dark main theme sings its sad song, and returns in a number of guises. Piazzolla varies the accompaniment beneath this tune, and the tango stays firmly within its somber and expressive opening mood.

After returning from his studies with Nadia Boulanger in Paris, Piazzolla had great success in Argentina, but after two decades there (and a heart attack in 1973), he decided to return to Europe. Libertango, composed in Italy in 1974, quickly became a hit in Europe, and it remains today one of Piazzolla's most popular works. The title of this brief tango is somewhat fanciful (Piazzolla himself described it as "a sort of song of liberty"), and listeners will be taken more by its pulsing rhythm, which functions as an ostinato throughout, and Piazzolla's sinuous, sensual and dark main theme.