Piazzolla: Tangazo; Double Concerto for bandoneon & guitar; Tres movimientos tanguísticos porteños; Oblivion; Milonga del ángel; Danza criolla; Adiós Nonino

COMPOSERS: Piazzolla
LABELS: Decca
WORKS: Tangazo; Double Concerto for bandoneon & guitar; Tres movimientos tanguísticos porteños; Oblivion; Milonga del ángel; Danza criolla; Adiós Nonino
PERFORMER: Daniel Binelli (bandoneon), Eduardo Isaac (guitar), Louise Pellerin (oboe); Montreal SO/Charles Dutoit
CATALOGUE NO: 468 528-2

A whole disc-full of tangos – there ought to be a point at which, as Dr Johnson politely put it, ‘the attention retires’. Surely there’s a limit to what you can do with one dance rhythm? In fact the Argentinian-born Astor Piazzolla’s tango-based compositions are as remarkable for their variety of character as Chopin’s Mazurkas or Faure’s Barcarolles – and, at their best, they’re every bit as inventive. From the sweet cinematic melancholy of Oblivion to the austere, brooding counterpoint that launches Tangazo is no small step, even though the two are clearly based on a slow version of the same dance. In Tres movimientos tanguísticos porteños Piazzolla manages to construct a strongly contrasted three-movement suite on tango foundations. The playing of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra under Charles Dutoit balances sophistication and sensuality to near-perfection: the mood may swing from exultation to elegy, but there’s still the sense of a contained sexual charge in the background. Daniel Binelli’s versatility on the bandoneon is impressive, too, and the recordings capture its creaky, wheezy eloquence well on the whole – though it sounds as though Binelli needed help from the engineers to make his presence felt in the richly scored Adiós Nonino. Stephen Johnson