Search - Astor Piazzolla, Oswaldo Berlingieri, Osvaldo Berlingieri :: Astor Piazzolla & Osvaldo Berlingieri

An Interesting Pairing

Kurt Harding | Boerne TX | 09/24/2001

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Although I own more than 40 Astor Piazzolla CDs, I keep buying more because there are so many recordings coming available featuring new arrangements and different musicians that I had not heard before.
This is kind of a strange CD because although the cover implies a collaborative effort, such as recordings Piazzolla made with Gerry Mulligan and Gary Burton, it is not. The CD features 9 songs played by the Astor Piazzolla Quintet and another 7 played by Osvaldo Berlingieri's orchestra. Since both men, especially Piazzolla, are regarded as being rather avant garde in the world of tango, I suppose the record company wanted to offer samples of each one's work on a sloppily assembled CD. At any rate, it makes for an interesting pairing.
Don't get me wrong, I like the music, but the sleeve notes are singularly useless. With the exception of the band leaders, there is no indication as to which musicians play on which cuts.
Acclaimed violinist Elvino Vardaro is here somewhere, but where?
Where do Raul Garello, Fernando Suarez Paz, and Antonio Agri play?
Now down to the music. There are a couple Piazzolla compositions I've never heard, like 5 Ano Nacional, and they are excellent. There are stunning new arrangements of Preparense and Lo Que Vendra. Piazzolla even performs a couple of old classics.
Berlingieri's orchestra plays only classic compositions by others, but with a very jazzy twist. His arrangement of the classic Vida Mia is most interesting, as is his interpretation of Anibal Troilo's Responso. The best orchestral piece is the last one, a powerful jazz rendition of the classic La Cachila.
Overall, the music is excellent and I recommend this to followers of Piazzolla despite the execrable liner notes which knock off a star in the rating."