We all know that there’s
life beyond Piazzolla for the concert
tango and here’s a selection further
to cement that thought. Argentina and
Uruguay are both represented and one
of the most prominent of the composers
is H Ulysses Passarella who’s responsible
for original compositions and arrangements.
His Suite Rioplatense
is one of the weightiest pieces here,
an undated, three-movement work. It
takes in rather brusque ostinati and
swirling strings – played by the quintet
with verve – and touches on the desolate
in the Corale second movement. Here
we also some hear some percussive colour
and a fine sense of dramatic diminuendi.
The sound world here is dry and parched,
with the viola and cello-leader deliberately
sour toned and hoarsely evocative. The
fugal finale is a pleasing, teasing
affair, rich and tensile but with room
for a cadential passage for the cello,
and then back to some back-to where-we-started
ostinati for the final section.
Melancholy is never
far from the Tango as we hear in Troilo’s
Sur in this arrangement by Passarella.
The sense of tristesse gradually increases
in tension and tempo over bass pizzicati
and generates a strong effect. Demare’s
Melena is textually full of slithering
strings, sustained melodic lines and
abrasive abrupt pizzicati. The slower,
more pliant tango, in this arrangement
by cellist-leader Jessica Kuhn’s arrangement,
is exemplified best by Manzi’s El
ultimo organito – slow, sinuous
and highly effective. One of the pieces
I most admired was Passarella’s Preludio
y Milonga, which has an in-built
almost hypnotic charge though his Pieza
Rioplatense No.2 has a bold sense
of style and drama with whistling violins
over the viola’s melody line.
Juarés Lamarque
Pons contributes Tres Ritmicas de
Tango once more mediated by Passarella’s
arrangement. Whilst the second of the
three has its own concentrated melancholia
it’s the third that most engages – bold
unison writing, with a touch of the
tango, slapped bass and running jazz
lines and a cornucopic sense of quasi-minimalism,
car horns and other impedimenta. Another
feature of the disc is the readings
from Homero Manzi’s poems, which are
interspersed throughout the programme.
They’re read by Acho Manzi and give
a broader evocation of the seedbeds
of inspiration that animated some of
these compositions.
There’s enough variety
here to keep "tango surfeit"
at bay even if you find, as I do, that
a little of it - and Piazzolla - goes
a very long way. Even so it must be
said that none of the pieces here matches
his stunning memorability and emotional
directness of utterance, though the
performances are committed and commanding.
Jonathan Woolf
Recitations of poems by Homero Manzi by
Acho Manzi 
