The Tango Explored: 135 years of the Argentine Tango

On Friday 16^th January the menu at the St. James’s lunch-time concert was seventeen tangos from fourteen different composers, the majority receiving their UK premieres. Despite all this richness the music proved to be highly digestible and hugely enjoyable, thanks to the attractive presentation by the distinguished Argentine pianist Estela Telerman. She took time to provide helpful background information on the genesis of this most well known of 20^th Century dances, and on the individual pieces and their largely unfamiliar ‘classical’ composers. The music was played in chronological order. To do justice to this, the programme of works played has been reproduced at the end of this review.

Two early pieces written in the latter part of the 19^th Century respectively by Palazuelos and Hargreaves had a period feel, redolent of ragtime music and the Latin American pieces of Gottschalk. In those days the tango was street-corner music, typically played on the barrel-organ and had yet to achieve a successful transition into the classical repertoire. Two better-known musicians introduced it successfully to the concert-going public, namely Buchardo and Drangosch; the latter’s Tango Air from a 1921operetta, was particularly memorable and most typified the Argentine dramatic tango. Both composers are unjustly neglected today and were responsible in helping to lay the foundations of modern Argentine music.

It was evident that composers’ responses to the challenge of writing a tango was quite varied, but from the examples selected, frequently inventive and not without a sense of humour. We also heard examples of the tango being used in established ‘classical’ forms and more modern responses to this now popular and accepted idiom. The tango “Encounter”, written by Ranieri was originally scored for soprano and piano and arranged for Estela Telerman by the composer for solo piano, and given its World Premiere in this form. Finishing with a Piazzolla encore, the audience responded enthusiastically to this wonderful concert. Throughout the recital Miss Telerman gave us alert and articulate readings, always responding most naturally the tango’s rhythms, showing that there is a lot more to it than just a popular dance.                       

ILAMS would also like to acknowledge the support given to Ms Telerman by Mr and Mrs Victor Hugo Morales and Argentmúsica. Also for more information about Argentmúsica which Estela Telerman created, check out  their most interesting website (www.argentmusica.netfirms.com), which also contains details of  recordings. A CD exploring the Argentine Tango by Estela Telerman, including all the pieces in the published programme has just been released and you can order a copy via ILAMS.               

                                                                                                                                            RayPicot

                                                CONCERT PROGRAMME

               José María PALAZUELOS (1840-1893)   El negro Schicoba/ Schicoba the Black   (1867)

Francisco HARGREAVES ( 1849-1900)                                                         Bartolo ( 1880)        

Carlos López BUCHARDO (1881-1948) Pare el Tranguay/ Porter, stop the Tram!(1905)                                                                                                                                        

                                                                                                                          Coquito (c.1920)                                     Ernesto DRANGOSCH(1882-1925)        Don Pepe (from  “Three Creole Tangos”) (1908)                                                            

                                                                          El Perseguido/ The Persecuted One  (c.1920)

                                                    Tango Air (from the operetta “The Miracle Cave”) (1921)

Manuel Gómez CARRILLO (1883-1968)                              Tenga Mano/ Hold it! (c.1917)    

Constantino GAITO (1878-1945)                                                                     Tango (c.1929)

Juan Francisco GIACOBBE (1907-1990)                             Prelude in Tango Form (1940)                                          

Juan Carlos PAZ  (1902-1971)                       Junto al Paraná/ By the Paraná River (1941)                                                

Jorge Arandia NAVARRO (1929)Tango que le hiciste mal/ Tango, you did wrong (1949)                                                                                 

Gilardo GILARDI (1889-1963)                                                                           Tango (1958)                                

Salvador  RANIERI(1930- )                                                    Encuentro/  Encounter (1962)

Juan  Carlos ZORZI (1935-1999)                                                                Tanguango 1975)

Irma URTEAGA (1929)    Entonces/ Long ago: 1^st Tango from “That Old Buenos Aires”                                                   

                                                                                                                                            (2001)

Jorge PÍTARI (1943)                  Invención Tanguera No.3/  Tango Invention No. 3 (2002)