TRIO FUNDACION ASTOR PIAZOLLA

Trio Fundacion Astor Piazzolla, three talented musicians came together with 'The Orchestra de Cámara Mayo' to record the only symphony written by Piazzolla 'Nacar'. Marcelo Jaime Nisinman on bandeon, Sebastian Forster on piano and Timora Rosler on Cello.
To Astor Piazzolla and his music Astor Piazzolla died in 1992 after a severe illness which he had already suffered from while he was in Paris, in his beloved Buenos Aires, in his native land of South America where he was born in 1921 in Seebad Mar del Plata on the Atlantic coast. He had engaged himself seriously with music since 1930 and had decided to work with the bandoneon, an instrument which originally came from Germany but had become virtually naturalised in Argentina. His childhood and youth were spent with his parents in New York (1924 - 1937) where he was influenced by Carlos Gardel playing a precocious musician in the film "El día que me quieras". Upon his return to Buenos Aires he played in the orchestra Aníbal Troilos, the most popular of the so-called "typical" orchestras. He did not want to just leave it at that, however, and studied with no less a man than Alberto Ginastera. Before he settled down in Paris, in order to refine his art even further with Nadia Boulanger (1954), he had already made his first efforts in the field of concert music: the Suite for Harp and Strings (1942), the Tango Dramático for 13 instruments (1953) and the Sinfonietta. He received a prize in the United States of America for his Rapsodia Porteña, the Premio Favien Sevtzky for his Sinfonía Buenos Aires; he then received countless prizes for his music after achieving international recognition. Piazzolla sketched the "Música de Buenos Aires" using the instruments of a peaceful revolution: in that he was continuously creating something new but stayed faithful to the one time chosen method of expression. He never deviated from his musical conviction even for the accompanying music to a film by Jeanne Moreau. His music describes the large modern city with its gigantic skyscrapers, its air pollution and its ear-deafening noise, with its restlessness and murderous traffic, the joggers and the howling cyclists. Piazzolla let his city of Buenos Aires, with all of its secrets and wrong ways, be created in colourful pictures which were unfolded in the plaintive tones of the bandoneon, in the deep drum droning and now and then in joyful sounds. As it came to a discussion some years ago in a coffee house, where countless numbers of his projects had their beginnings, to make the "Concierto de Nácar" known in Europe, this appeared to me to be a difficult but not impossible task; one simply needed to gather sufficient like-minded people together who had one thing in common: passionate admiration for the music of Astor Piazzolla. Laura Escalada, the widow of the composer, who is well known for constantly "flying the flag" authorised a version for Trio and String Orchestra which finally had its premiere in Europe in the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. The sound of the bandoneon, a hallmark of the music of Astor Piazzolla and known worldwide, was brought to life by Marcelo Nisinman, who in the difficult selection phase was personally given the blessing of Piazzolla. A much younger person was Sebastian Forster who Astor accompanied as he bought his first piano; today he takes this instrument throughout the whole world and receives much applause with it in his concerts. Since the time that Rostropowitsch gave Piazzolla the commission to write the "Le grand tango", the violoncello has, perhaps for ever, become a part of his music; this resulted in bringing in Timora Rosler onto this bold project. One could win the chamber orchestra Orquesta de Cámara Mayo which has a soft spot for contemporary music. The decision to have Pedro Ignacio Calderón as the conductor guaranteed quality: the work had its premiere under his direction and he also had the opportunity to work on the piece with Piazzolla himself. The result of the combined efforts of all concerned is a CD which you can now hold in the hand. This is a case where the saying "Where there is a will there is a way" is shown to be true: our will was combined to achieve a common goal - driven, where possible, by the inexhaustible energy of Astor Piazzolla, which one can still feel.
Abel López Iturbe