Various - Tango Sentimentale - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Alicia Terzian is a world-recognized, award-winning composer, conductor, and musicologist. She is on the faculty of the Fine Arts Academy of Chile and Spain and is the conductor of Grupo Encuentros, the official group of the International Encounters for Contemporary Music Foundation and the only permanent group in Latin America. The pieces leading up to Terzian's masterwork create a nostalgic backdrop to the beginning of the album. The tangos pay homage to the decadence of Old Hollywood and the jazz age, but with a haunting touch added by the ghostly sound effects tucked within Cristal. Terzian's own composition, Buenos Aires, you're going to kill me, is a four-movement work for piano with electroacoustic sounds and poems. Utilizing soloists, textured layering, and electroacoustic sound manipulation, the movements range from adventurous and lighthearted to eerie and dark, capturing the many different sides of a major city's personality. The next piece is Jukka Tienssuu's Tango lunar, an instrumental quintet with an equally rich melody. Malena, too, is remarkable this 1940's tango by Lucio Demare is beautifully sung by Marta Blanco. Roque de Pedro's thick and soulful, yet equally intimate In the bar as a tango was dedicated in 1989 to Grupo Encuentros. Un Argentino de vuelte begins as a delicate fantasy sonata for piano but is interrupted by the entry of the tango ensemble and a scat singer. Their melody becomes something of a ritornello. A solo flute drives the composition into power play against the vibrato of the bandoneon, which eventually wins, breaking down into a solo cadenza. The beautiful piano solo returns followed by an occurence of the ritornello. Next is Los Mareados, a powerful Spanish anthem; followed by Verano Porteño, a trio for violin, cello, and piano. Closing the album is Llamado de Tambores, a work for instrumental sextet and voice, which includes

When you are writing arrangements of the tango and other Latin American music for classical string orchestras, there are some special challenges. Most of these involve how one can incorporate all the musical elements that are not included as part of the notation. Things that the musicians just know because they know the style, but that are not written down, and are often very difficult to notate. In the tango one often talks about playing 'con mugre' (with 'dirt under your nails'), which is a way of describing all the small nuances in the playing that must be there if it is going to feel right, but that are not necessarily 'correct' on the instrument. This often involves untraditional ways of creating added sounds and effects while you are playing, or the way you use accents, staccato, glissando and crescendo, at a subtle and detailed level that is often difficult to distinguish from a particular musician's personal style. How much of this can be marked in the music notation? I am constantly experimenting to find a good balance that does not include so much information that it becomes impossible to read/play, but enough to give it a reasonably authentic character. (Sverre Indris Joner, Arranger, pianist and composer)

Album Tracks 1. El Choclo 2. La Cumparsita 3. Miss Mendacity 4. Nostalgico 5. Adios, Nonino 6. La Milonga y Yo 7. Lagrimas y Sonrisas 8. So in Love 9. Oblivion 10. Jealousy Tango 11. Lo Que Vendra 12. Orlando Goni 13. Nobleza de Arrabal 14. Melancolico