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Astor Piazzolla (1921-1992) himself may well have been amazed by his enduring popularity: On his 100th birthday on 11 March 2021, orchestras, bands and ensembles around the world paid tribute to him. The Neue Philharmonie Westfalen and general music director Rasmus Baumann also feel a connection to the king of the tango's singular music. And for this CD they were able to lure Lothar Hensel, a seasoned bandoneon specialist. The instrument embodies the typical Piazzolla sound like no other - however, its origins lie not in Argentina, but rather the Lower Rhine. Piazzolla's roots were also European. The son of an Italian barber who emigrated to Argentina, Piazzolla learned the bandoneon rather begrudgingly. His inner tangomania was only kindled as a 15-year-old, though he maintained his dream of a career as a serious composer. He studied the fusion of South American and European music with his countryman Alberto Ginastera.

His Sinfonietta 1953 is as a result unmistakably influenced by the then-prevailing "gods" of Béla Bartók and Igor Stravinsky. Even if we do not yet encounter the signature sound that would develop later, the Sinfonietta is notable as a remarkable way-station on the 32-year-old's trajectory - and it secured him a national critics' award.

This arrangement of Adios Nonino is also a first recording. Piazzolla's friend José Bragato, whose connection to him was as both a cellist and copyist, left a version for bandoneon and string orchestra. Lothar Hensel remembered a copy of the manuscript in his possession and made a performing edition.

Piazzolla composed a declaration of love for the Argentine capital with Tangazo, subtitled Variations on Buenos Aires. After mysterious, chromatic murmuring in the basses, an intense melody, grandiose in its sadness, soars up. And only after this curtain has been lifted do the angular, tattered rhythms leap up like a jack-knife and lead us into the tango bars of the port metropolis.

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