Despite his South American origins and despite the fact that his tango ensembles mostly included an electric guitar,
Astor Piazzolla
wrote very little for the guitar, and what he did write came from the last decade of his career. This release covers all of it except for the
Double Concerto for bandoneón and guitar
(1985) and still has to fill out the program with arrangements; the one of
Oblivion
, by lead performer
Yuri Liberzon
, is elegant and here receives its world premiere.
Liberzon
and second guitarist
Piotr Pakhomkin
were both students of
Manuel Barrueco
, and
plays his arrangement of the six
Tango-Études
of 1987, originally for flute. As with arrangements of
Bach
's solo instrumental pieces, this version loses some of the tension in the original solo line, but taken on their own terms, the pieces are enjoyable. So, too, are the
Cinco Piezas for solo guitar
of 1980, idiomatic works that are impressive coming from a non-guitarist.
Pakhomkin
joins
on the three-movement
Tango Suite
of 1984; this is the richest of the pieces here and exploits the guitar's percussive capabilities nicely. The church sound is not ideal for this intimate music but does not fetishize instrument noise, and the playing overall has the elusive tango feel. The album will be welcomed by guitarists and lovers of the guitar repertory. ~ James Manheim