ASTOR PIAZZOLLA CENTENNIAL: BETWEEN ANGELS & DEMONS

October 28, 2021 | Bohemian National Hall

Philippe Quint, violin
Rodolfo Zanetti, bandoneón
Pedro Giraudo, bass
Ahmed Alom, piano
Federico Díaz, guitar
Sofía Tosello, vocalist

Narration by Philippe Quint

Piazzolla
Michelangelo ’70
Milonga del Angel
Muerte del Angel
‘Yo soy María’ from María de Buenos Aires
Siempre se vuelve a Buenos Aires
Estaciones porteñas: Verano, Otoño, Invierno, Primavera
(Poems by Lila Zemborain)
Concierto para quinteto

Photographs by Tao Ho © 2021

2021 marks the centennial of Argentine composer and virtuoso bandoneón player Astor Piazzolla. The single most important figure in the history of tango, Piazzolla created a whole new musical genre based on Argentina’s national dance. Breaking boundaries and revolutionizing traditional tango, he introduced the world to tango nuevo: a fusion of tango, jazz, klezmer, and classical music. The Piazzolla style is bold, unique, immediately recognizable, and utterly irresistible.

A child prodigy, Piazzolla wrote his first tango at the age of 11. However, in his early 20s, he decided to give up tango and traveled to Paris to study classical music with the famous French pianist and composer Nadia Boulanger. It was she who told him not to give up on tango.

Join us as multi-Grammy-nominated violinist Philippe Quint and his Quint Quintet perform some of Piazzolla’s most iconic works as part of a narrative tracing the musical and personal journey of an extraordinary musician who achieved international acclaim but – before becoming a national treasure – was dubbed ‘tango-killer’ in his native Argentina. Come and discover the man whose life story was, in his own words, ‘one of both angels and demons’.