Why does it seem to be Europeans who have thrown themselves wholeheartedly into the project of performing Astor Piazzolla's music on conventional classical instruments? Piazzolla has plenty of adherents in America, and one of the most famous groups to come at him from the classical side, the Kronos Quartet, was American. But each week seems to bring a new Piazzolla release from some orchestra or chamber group. Perhaps it has to do with a hunger for classical works rooted in a popular language -- America hasn't solved this ...
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Why does it seem to be Europeans who have thrown themselves wholeheartedly into the project of performing Astor Piazzolla's music on conventional classical instruments? Piazzolla has plenty of adherents in America, and one of the most famous groups to come at him from the classical side, the Kronos Quartet, was American. But each week seems to bring a new Piazzolla release from some orchestra or chamber group. Perhaps it has to do with a hunger for classical works rooted in a popular language -- America hasn't solved this problem, but it does have its Gershwins, its Ellingtons, its Bernsteins. The tradition of performing Piazzolla's music on conventional classical instruments has been especially strong in Belgium, where Piazzolla (in Liège) gave an enthusiastically received concert in the 1980s that pushed his thinking back toward classical contexts in the last years of his life, and here a group of Belgian players interprets some familiar Piazzolla pieces on a variety of duos and trios, in...
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