Piazzolla: Sinfonia Buenos Aires

In the ‘50s, bandoneón player and composer Astor Piazzolla incorporated jazz and classical into a style known as nuevo tango. This album includes 1951’s “Sinfonia Buenos Aires,” an early work that sometimes recalls Stravinsky, and successfully brings the bandoneón into an orchestral setting. In this reading by the Nashville Symphony Orchestra, led by Giancarlo Guerrero, the three-movement symphony bristles with energy, and Daniel Binelli shines on bandoneón. In 1954, Piazzolla studied composition with Nadia Boulanger, who encouraged him to work with the tango he knew and played so well. Piazzolla’s compositional approach took a turn: he went on to develop a strong voice, one that can be heard in 1979’s “Concerto for Bandoneón, String Orchestra and Percussion, (Aconcagua).” The piece’s first few measures make it clear that Piazzolla had found a way to integrate his influences and to make the whole orchestra resonate with tango feeling. The album closes with a posthumous arrangement by Leonid Desyatnikov of Las Cuatro Estaciones Porteñas that references Vivaldi, and features Tianwa Yang on violin.