Playing the Tango

The members getting a standing ovation from some audience members

Over the Christmas holidays my friend YTSL asked me to go see a Tango-themed music concert in January. I said sure, as I like Tango music. We went this evening to see Viva Tango! The music of Schifrin and Piazzolla at the City Hall Concert Hall and weren't disappointed.

It was put on by the Beare's Premiere Music Festival, formerly known as the Hong Kong International Chamber Music Festival, with Beare being a well known violin dealer based in London that specializes in antique stringed instruments.

The ensemble of musicians was diverse -- Cho-Liang Lin from Taiwan, who is also artistic director of the music festival, Argentine-born cellist Pablo Aslan who lives in New York, Alex Brown also from the US, Hector del Curto from Argentina and plays the bandoneon, kind of like an accordion, clarinetist David Shifrin from New York, and Satoshi Takeishi from Japan on percussion.

The ensemble played very well together

It was nice having Aslan introducing the music because he gave some context about why a piece was composed or what the composer was like and he would tell it in a funny way.

Another interesting tidbit is that the clarinetist Shifrin is the second cousin twice removed of Lalo Schifrin, who not only composes tango music as he's from Buenos Aires, Argentina, but he is also know for composing music scores, including Mission Impossible, Bruce Lee's Enter the Dragon, Dirty Harry, and wrote many arrangements for the Three Tenors concerts.

So the clarinetist and the composer, their grandfathers were brothers. One went to the America, the other to South America.

The first half of the concert was dedicated to Schirfrin's music starting with a classic tango style -- Tango del Atardecer, that set the tone for the evening. Perhaps it was just missing some dancers doing the tango on stage, but really the music was so engaging that it was fun to watch them play -- and play very well together.



The third piece, Tango Borealis was slow but had a wonderful soft, elegant finish. The pace picked up with Malambo de los Llanos. Apparently the Malambo is a dance and Hector the bandeoneon was asked to demonstrate a few steps for us which was fun to watch.

After the intermission we were then introduced to Astor Piazzolla's music that started with Michelangelo 70 that was not a tribute to the Renaissance artist, but to a bar that Piazzolla and his band played at.

Piazzolla was born in Argentina then moved to New York and was exposed to a variety of music that is what makes his so eclectic, but still very much in the style of tango.

We were particularly enamoured with the piece Oblivion that was so beautifully performed with a light touch at the end. Here's a sample of Piazzolla playing the piece himself on the bandoneon:



The audience was just as thrilled to hear the music as we were -- though it was not completely full -- and the ensemble were probably pleased to see Hong Kong enjoying the music too. It wasn't too hard to twist their arm to do an encore for us and cellist Aslan joked that we really came to the concert to hear the piece of music they were about to play -- Mission Impossible by Schifrin!

It was funny to hear a small six-piece band play the theme song on a violin, a clarinet, piano, bandoneon and a cello! But here's Schifrin himself performing it in 2011. By the way he received an honorary Oscar in November for his contribution to soundtracks over the decades.



What I enjoyed about the concert was that it was a fusion of tango, jazz, and a bit of classical all rolled up together that made for a memorable evening.

Viva Tango! The Music of Schifrin & Piazzolla
Concert Hall Hong Kong City Hall

Schifrin: Letters from Argentina
Tango del Atardecer
Pampas
Tango Borealis
Danza de los Montes
Tango a Borges
Malambo de los Llanos

Piazzolla: Selected Tangos
Michelangelo 70
Verano Porteno
Adios Nonino
La Muerte del Angel
Oblivion
Libertango