TANGOS y algo mas..(Tangos & something more)
Grupo Encuentros/Alicia
Terzian
Disques DOM 1097
How many composers from Argentina do you know? I met and got to know Alicia
Terzian in Luxembourg at the ISCM meeting, where she was representing
her country, which is so far away that it does not feature often in European
contemporary music programmes. She is a force to be reckoned with, a versatile
composer/conductor who has moved with the times since her well crafted and
accomplished violin concerto, composed when she was about twenty and recently
recorded in Zurich (DOM 1452 ****), now
an avant-garde composer, conductor and active in international music
administration. She founded her Encuentros Group to introduce Latin American
and Argentinian avantgarde music to international audiences, and brought
them to London for the enjoyable and well remembered Viva! Festival
at South Bank in the late '80s. It was a pleasure to catch up with her again.
This is a great and unique CD, as worthy of acquisition as Yvar Mikhashoff's
highly recommended posthumous Incitation to Desire, reviewed recently
(New Albion NA073
*****). Besides three of her
own, two in contemporary idiom from a work with tape and text by Cezar Fernandez
Moreno, the 13 tracks include more traditional tangos arranged for violin
and piano and by Terzian for piano trio. Several are sung by mezzo Marta
Blanco, who is active in all genres. There are two of Piazzola's tangos sounding
more gutsy than some of those popularised by Gidon Kremer's group recently,
with of course the bandoneon (Piazzola's own instrument - Daniel Binelli)
and thoroughly idiomatic piano playing by Claudio Espector and on clarinet,
Eduardo Ihidoype. I was glad to see amongst the contemporary composers
represented, Jukka Tienssuu, Finnish composer/harpsichordist extraordinaire
(his The Fantastic harpsichord Finlandia FACD 357
***** is one of my favourite CDs).
The recording is excellent and the sequence is well arranged to demonstrate
the fruitfulness of the tango for contemporary composers. It is perhaps a
pity that the sung and spoken texts are not given with translations, and
a native English-speaker did not assist with the translation of the accompanying
text, but I enjoyed it all so much I have not dropped a star on those accounts.
Enquiries to aterzian@aliciaterzian.com.ar
Peter Grahame Woolf
