The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires

My last post featured two contrasting performances of the Winter and Spring concertos from Vivaldi’s Four Seasons.  Now, here is music written around 1965 by the great Argentinian tango composer Astor Piazzolla.

The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires was originally written for Piazzolla’s quintet (bandoneon, piano, violin, electric guitar and electric base).  Violinist Gidon Kremer commissioned the Russian composer Leonid Desyatnikov to create this version for solo violin and string orchestra.

You might hear echoes of Vivaldi, as well as moments where the strings sound more like percussion instruments.  These effects are created by tapping the instruments, hitting the strings with the wood of the bow and creating scratchy sounds by playing on the wrong side of the bridge.

The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires…Astor Piazzolla (1921-1992) /arr. Desyatnikov

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Violinist Gidon Kremer performs Winter and Spring with Kremerata Baltica: