Amarcord d’un Tango
Marco Albonetti (soprano saxophone)
Daniele di Bonaventura (bandoneón)
Orchestra Filarmonica Italiana
rec. 2021, Teatro Masini, Faenza, Italy
CHANDOS CHAN20259 [59]
The name, since you wonder, explains it all. Solo saxophonist Marco Albonetti tells us in the first line of the CD booklet that “Amarcord signifies memory, the nostalgic re-enactment of the past”, and that’s the key to this disc. On the one hand it’s a history of the tango, taking in some of the legends of its compositional life; but it’s played mostly through arrangements and reimaginings, placing the saxophone and the bandoneón at the centre of the musical picture. Lots of the arrangements are done by the star soloists that this recording has to hand - Marco Albonetti on the saxophone and Daniele di Bonaventure on the bandoneón - while some of them are original or arranged elsewhere, but what really matters is that it’s hugely atmospheric and enormously fun.
As you might expect, the whole thing has a foot-tapping energy and a slight sense of danger. Those two things are pretty much essential for the tango, but they’re far from guaranteed. However, they’re definitely present here, and they give the whole disc a tremendous sense of purpose and focus. The recording really helps to capture that sense of energy: the small string band sounds great in the setting of the Teatro Masini, and the engineers have made them sound close while retaining a touch of space around the sound. The saxophone and bandoneón are spotlit a little but not too much (the bandoneón, in particular, has a wonderfully wheezy quality to it, helped by the fact that you can hear the gentle click of the keys) and the whole sound picture is beautifully blended.
The music itself is terrific. The tangos by the accepted masters have a wonderful swagger to them. Piazzolla is there, of course, radiating authority, if that’s possible in a smoke-filled barrio, and Gardel’s famous Por una cabeza keeps its power in its unusual instrumentation. I often found myself breaking into a smile without realising it, most winningly in Arroyo’s El Choclo, thought it’s not all sweetness: Bosso’s Tango’s Gedenke is positively experimental both in its textures and its harmonies. Sometimes the atmosphere is more reflective, such as in Gardel’s Sus ojos se cerraron or Piazzolla’s astonishing Jardins d’Afrique, but even here there is an air of an eyebrow raised and an amorous look across a crowded room.
However, I particularly enjoyed Bonaventura’s own music, intimate miniatures mostly for the bandoneón and sax alone, providing gentle ruminations amidst the tempestuous emotions of the faster music that surrounds them. Some of the, particularly the Sanctus, I found really spellbinding, and they’re part of the disc’s USP.
Every so often, distinct tracks elided into one another without a break, reinforcing the idea that this disc is a specially created unity. Other tango discs are out there, but Albonetti and Bonaventure’s contributions make this one really distinctive.
Simon Thompson
Contents
Astor Piazzolla (1921-1992)
Triunfal
Jardin d’Afrique
Bruno et Sarah
Carlos Gardel (1890-1935)
Por una cabeza
Sus ojos se cerraron
Daniele di Bonaventura (b.1966)
Sanctus
Corale
Tango
Graduale
Ariel Ramírez (1921-2010)
Alfonsina y el mar
Ángel Gregorio Villoldo Arroyo (1861-1919)
El choclo
Richard Galliano (b.1950)
Tango pour Claude
Jorge Andrés Bosso (b. 1966)
Tango’s Gedanke
