4th Concert. Brussels Chamber Orchestra, Guttman, Andersen, Demarquette, Donoso, Genisson. Skala, Dimothiko Scholeio

Brussels Chamber Orchestra

Michael Guttman, violin and conductor

Leonardo Andersen, guitar

Henri Demarquette, cello

Lysandre Donoso, bandoneon

Pierre Genisson, clarinet

Tonight’s programme brings together two central figures of twentieth-century music, apparently distant in background and training, yet united by their ability to integrate, within a personal and instantly recognisable language, the cultivated European tradition with popular roots: George Gershwin (1898-1937), an American composer in whom jazz and the musical idiom commonly termed “classical” achieve an innovative equilibrium, and Astor Piazzolla (1921-1992), the reformer of the Argentine tango and creator of the “nuevo tango”, which fuses classical formal structures, jazz harmonies, and the urban rhythms of Buenos Aires.

Composed in 1982 and dedicated to Mstislav Rostropovich, Le Grand Tango belongs to Piazzolla’s late period, characterised by broader formal designs and a marked preference for the concerto form. The original version for cello and piano is cast in three contrasting sections, alternating rhythmically dense episodes with moments of intense lyricism. The version for cello and string orchestra, prepared by various arrangers from the 1990s onwards, preserves the dramatic tension of the original while expanding its timbral range: the strings, often divided and engaged in antiphonal dialogue, create a dense, enveloping texture, while the soloist emerges in the foreground with cantabile lines that evoke both popular song and cultivated instrumental writing.

Gershwin’s Three Preludes, composed in 1926 and premiered by the composer at the piano, date from a moment of full creative maturity. Each of the three pieces – in B-flat major, C-sharp minor, and E-flat major respectively – possesses a distinct identity: from the rhythmic vigour of the first, alternating syncopated accents and blues harmonies, to the languid cantabile of the second, and the almost percussive brilliance of the third. In the version for clarinet and string orchestra, the woodwind timbre highlights glissandi, microtonal inflections, and dynamic nuances typical of jazz phrasing, offering a new perspective on the original piano textures and recalling the clarinet tradition in the jazz of the 1920s and 1930s.

Astor Piazzolla wrote his Concerto for Bandoneón, Guitar and Strings: Hommage à Liège in 1985. Commissioned by the city of Liège and dedicated to the guitarist Cacho Tirao and Piazzolla himself as bandoneón soloist, the work was premiered in Belgium in May of that year. The concerto blends Piazzolla’s unmistakable tango idiom with classical concerto form, creating a vibrant dialogue between bandoneón, guitar, and strings. Pulsating rhythms, jazz-inflected harmonies, and moments of intimate lyricism alternate with explosive energy. The title pays tribute both to Liège’s musical tradition and to Piazzolla’s determination to place tango on the world’s concert stages. With its fusion of popular roots and symphonic ambition, Hommage à Liège stands as one of Piazzolla’s most compelling concert works, celebrating the expressive power of tango as music of both passion and sophistication.

The Concierto para Quinteto, written in 1971 for the Quinteto Nuevo Tango – an ensemble founded by Piazzolla and consisting of bandoneón, violin, piano, electric guitar, and double bass – is presented here in an arrangement for solo violin and orchestra by Pablo Villuendas. This version reimagines the intricate rhythmic and contrapuntal interplay of the original, projecting the violin into an expansive solo role and transferring the functions of the quintet’s other instruments into the orchestral texture, without relinquishing the sudden metric ruptures and unexpected modulations characteristic of Piazzolla’s style.

The programme closes with Libertango (1974), one of Piazzolla’s most famous and frequently performed works, here in a transcription for violin and orchestra. The original was conceived as a declaration of “liberation” from the traditional tango – the title itself fuses “libertad” and “tango”.

Federico Foglizzo