Claudio Constantini & Louiza Hamadi – 20th Century Tango (2020)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:11:52 minutes | 1,17 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © IBS Classical
The tango is known to have originated in the suburbs of Buenos Aires, a casserole of local and foreign influences, full of brothels, knives, scoundrels and a few broken hearted heroes. Lesser known is the facet it developed later on and out of this context when the tango reached not only the high European saloons but also the ears and minds of some of the XXth century´s most important composers. Seduced perhaps by its apparent sensuality and articulated rhythmic pulsations, some of these composers were inspired enough to write their own tangos. With varied instrumentations, be it piano solo, a chamber ensemble or a symphony orchestra, they brought their own visions of tango and traduced them into their own musical language, one that was immersed in the idiom of the 20th century. Some of these works have been able to stay in the standard repertoire of musicians and ensembles, like the tangos of Albeniz or Stravinsky. However, others (Schnittke, Satie, Milhaud…) have been harder to introduce and remain quite unknown. But, what would happen if we would insert the most representative instrument of tango music into these works: the bandoneon? The result is here in your hands: an album that brings classical music of the 20th century together with progressive and revolutionary tango music of the same era, in the unusual chamber format of bandoneon and piano.
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Claudio Constantini – America (2019)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:22:36 minutes | 1,38 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © IBS Classical
Towards the end of the 19th century, two great cosmopolitan cities developed with identical characteristics in opposite corners of the vast American continent. In these cities, two characteristically urban musical genres were born produced by the melting pot of European immigrants, creoles, African slaves and people native to the land. When jazz (which emerged from European salon music together with ragtime rhythms, blues and spirituals) arrived to New York, it met indigenous melodies, religious chants, Anglo-Celtic ballads and cowboy songs from the old west, all of which would sum up the essence of North American music. On the other hand, in Buenos Aires (which had recently been elected as the capital city of Argentina), a style of danceable song was born in which one can trace influences coming from Andalutian flamenco, south Italian melodies, Cuban habanera, candombe and African percussion, Spanish contradanza and the milonga or the rural music from Argentina. Both styles breathed an air of nostalgia which bore memories of remote places, times of despair and of hope for a better life. Both are considered popular, they belong to simple people from the countryside who created them and witnessed their birth. Both of our authors, Gershwin and Piazzolla, mantained parallel lives with partially self-taught education. When they aspired to match their works to those of what is known as classical music, they both aimed at Paris to complete their education. In both cases they were encouraged to follow their own path, their own style in which their intuition wouldn´t be minimized by formalisms or rules which could have resulted as counterproductive. Both were extroverts, with a magnetic personality, full of vitality, enthusiasm and a fine sense of humour. However, deep inside they were somehow shy, insecure and sometimes even suffered from depression, all of which perfectly explain the contrasts in their happy and festive creations with the melancholic roots of deep solitude and suffering that subtly flourish in their immortal compositions. (José Manuel Baena)
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