University of Texas at El PasoFrom the SelectedWorks of Oscar Macchioni

February 17, 2018

Piazzolla da Camera CD ReleaseConcert. 2.17.2018Oscar E Macchioni

Available at: https://works.bepress.com/oscar_macchioni/

190/

CRC 3628

Piazzolla da CameraCarla Kountoupes, violinAndrew Nickles, celloOscar Macchioni, piano

1 La Muerte del Angel 3:47

2 Oblivión 4:17

Las Cuatro Estaciones Porteñas (25:31)3 Verano Porteño 7:404 Otoño Porteño 5:285 Invierno Porteño 7:286 Primavera Porteña 4:53

7 Ave María 5:28

8 Milonga del Angel 4:22

9 Le Grand Tango 11:47

Cinco Piezas (17:15)10 Campero and Romántico 6:5911 Acentuado 2:5712 Tristón 5:0413 Compadre 2:13

Total Time: 72:33

Recorded July 14, 15 and 17, 2016 at Fox Fine Arts Recital Hall, University of Texas at El Paso. Producedand Engineered by Steve Haddad. Piano: Steinway D. Cover Art: Josh Goldberg: Age of Blue Memory(Acrylic on canvas, 48X48”), courtesy of Susan Street Fine Art, Sedona Beach, California. Photos: PamSegura. This recording was made possible by the Arts and Humanities Career Enhancement Grant from theCollege of Liberal Arts at the University of Texas at El Paso.

�� 2017 Centaur Records, Inc. www.centaurrecords.com4

and now celebrates his fif-teenth year as a public schoolmusic teacher in Tucson,Arizona. He continues toarrange and compose for, anddirect, hundreds of guitar andorchestra students in Tucson,Arizona, where he lives withhis eleven-year-old son,Parker. He has performed intraveling Broadway produc-tions, symphonic premiers, aprivate concert for LadyMargaret Thatcher, andtoured with pianist IanHobson. With the Piazzolla daCamera Trio, he has appearedat Saint-Martin-in-the-Fieldsin London, in Thailand, andacross the desert southwest of the USA.

Oscar Macchioni is a Steinway Artist and anaccomplished pianist, professor, lecturer, author,and adjudicator. Oscar has performed extensivelyin his native Argentina, England, Italy, Poland,Turkey, Serbia, Mexico, Thailand, and the USA.The critics have praised him for his expressivephrasing and the amiable way he presents his pro-grams. His solo CD Mostly Tangos, and Latin-American Duos with violinist Mark Schuppenerreceived very enthusiastic reviews. He is also theauthor of the book The Tango in American PianoMusic. A dedicated teacher and mentor, Dr.Macchioni is in demand as a clinician an adjudica-

tor at various state, national and internationalpiano festivals and competitions. He has beensponsored through grants by the SmithsonianInstitution, the Polish Government, theOrganization of American States, and the City ofEl Paso though the Texas Commission on the Arts.He regularly presents concerts at underserve neigh-borhoods. In 2015, he received the prestigiousUniversity of Texas System Regents’ OutstandingTeaching Award. Oscar studied at the UniversidadNacional de Tucumán in Argentina, the CracowAcademy of Music in Poland, Louisiana StateUniversity, and the University of Arizona. Dr.Macchioni is a Professor of Piano and AssistantChair at the University of Texas at El Paso.

Piazzolla da CameraCarla Kountoupes, violinAndrew Nickles, celloOscar Macchioni, piano

2 3

Piazzolla da Camera Trio

This remarkable trio – piano, cello, and violin –performs many of the transcriptions made by JoséBragato, with grand mastery, expressing the dramaand pathos, passion and power of Piazzolla’s breath-taking music, at times weaving baroque-style coun-terpoint or spinning beautifully lyric melodies.Their fiery, sexy and very polished performancesjoin tradition with a refined approach to the inter-pretation of Piazzolla’s music: a whole world oftango that is wild, tender, caressing, brutal andmelancholic. Their performance will steal every-body’s heart.

María Susana Azzi

Mrs. Azzi is a cultural anthropologist and theauthor of the book “Le Grand Tango. The Life andMusic of Astor Piazzolla.” With a Foreword by Yo-Yo Ma, María Susana Azzi – Simon Collier, SanFrancisco, Astor and Lenox, 2017.

Carla Kountoupes, violinist, is a member of theSanta Fe Symphony Orchestra, Arizona OperaOrchestra, Santa Fe Pro Musica ChamberOrchestra, and Piazzolla da Camera Piano Trio.She is a graduate of Oberlin Conservatory (ViolinPerformance) and Oberlin College (EnglishLiterature). Carla has toured and performed profes-sionally with orchestras and chamber ensembles inCentral America, Taiwan, Germany, and all overthe United States, including as a member of the

New Century Chamber Orchestra in San Franciscoand the Costa Rican NationalSymphony Orchestra. Carla enjoys performing andrecording many genres in addition to classical, suchas Latin-world, alt-rock/pop, and jazz. A dedicatedmusic educator, Carla holds a Master of Musicdegree in Music Teaching. She has taught privateviolin lessons to children and adults for more than20 years and directs a thriving orchestra programin the Santa Fe Public Schools. Carla was awardedMusic Teacher of the Year in 2016 by the NewMexico Chapter of the American String TeachersAssociation, and is a conductor with the Santa FeYouth Symphony Association. In the summers sheteaches, conducts, and performs at the renownedSitka Fine Arts Camp in Sitka, Alaska. Carla per-forms on a violin made in the 1740’s that sheinherited from her grandfather.

Andrew Nickles was born to an Argentine motherand an American father in Urbana, Illinois. Hebegan his cello studies at age 10 with Janet Toti andJohn Lenz in Reno, Nevada. At the age of 17, hewas awarded a Rotary scholarship to study the celloin Belgium, where he became fluent in French andfell in love with the existential writings of AlbertCamus. In 1999, he earned bachelors degrees in bothFrench and Music from the University of Arizona,where he studied cello with Richard Bock, NancyGreen, and Gordon Epperson. In 2001, he returnedto Urbana to study with Laurien Laufman as heearned a master’s degree in cello from the Universityof Illinois. Andrew is passionate about giving youngpeople the gift of music, language and philosophy

1

Astor Piazzolla (1921-92), was a classically trainedcomposer of modern tangos whose music reflectedand inspired the deepest of feelings. He often saidhe had three teachers: Alberto Ginastera, NadiaBoulanger, and Buenos Aires. Although Piazzollaretained the tango’s essential spirit, he wrote tangofor listeners, and he introduced dissonance, chro-matic harmonies and a wider range of rhythms. Hismusic, too complex for most conservativetangueros, was strongly resisted by the purists. Thestory was that in the 1950s when Piazzolla wasconducting a symphony, an Italian musician in theorchestra asked him, “I assume you have nothingto do with this Piazzolla who plays tangos?”Nevertheless, the audience for Piazzolla’s work iswide and includes, classical music lovers, jazz fansand even rock musicians. His compositions com-bine elements of jazz, tango and classical music,mainly Bartók and Stravinsky. Piazzolla achieved arare symbiosis between composed and improvisedelements which gives his music distinct individual-ity and appeal. Piazzolla is recognized by theSACEM (Societé des Auteurs, Compositeurs etÉditeurs de la Musique, in Paris) as an unusuallyprolific composer.

Piazzolla, an immigrant himself, felt at home inNew York, Paris, Milan, Rome, Buenos Aires, orPunta del Este, the stylish summer resort inUruguay. Astor Piazzolla was born in Mar del Plata,Argentina, of Italian stock: his four grandparentscame from the northern and southern areas ofItaly: Lucca in Tuscany, and Trani in the Puglia

region. His parents, Vicente Piazzolla and AsuntaManetti, were Argentines. His most productiveperiod was the 1960s when he also developed newforms. During this decade, Piazzolla’s music beganto attract worldwide attention for its distinctivequalities. The compositions were a combination ofcontrapuntal voices and instruments, each of sig-nificance in itself, resulting in a coherent texture.Bach, the greatest master of polyphonic music, wasperhaps Piazzolla’s greatest idol. Piazzolla composedfor his soloists, a communion of musicians, as wellas for the audiences. But in the end, he composedand performed for himself. Violin effects, percus-sion, and improvisation come from the lower class-es, but the music is bourgeois. Piazzolla is both theproduct of a tradition and the rupture of that tradi-tion. Astor Piazzolla had no political banner oraffiliations, but he spoke to audiences in a new lan-guage. Although he never typed-cast himself, hewas a polyclassiste. For Piazzolla, the burning ques-tion was, “Do you or don’t you like my music?” Henever compromised his standards to cater to com-mercial interests. “My dream,” he once said, “is toimpose my music, my country’s music, all over theworld.”

La Muerte del Angel. Much of Piazzolla’s effort inthe first half of the 1960s went into pieces con-ceived or adapted for the Quintet. Among themost notable are his “Ángel” series that alsoinclude Milonga del Angel.

Piazzolla recorded the music he had written for

Marco Bellocchio’s film Enrico IV (1984), a screenadaptation of Luigi Pirandello’s classic play. Thehighlight of the score is undoubtedly Oblivionwith its almost unbearably nostalgic tune, one ofPiazzolla’s true gems and one of the most“cantabile.”

One of his best-known works, Las CuatroEstaciones Porteñas (The Four Seasons ofBuenos Aires), is a respectful nod to Vivaldi.Vivaldian traces can be heard in the music. Theyalso echo Haydn. The strong contrasts resultingfrom the juxtaposition of the individual “esta-ciones” clarify what Vivaldi and Piazzolla had incommon: innovation in terms of both sound andharmony.

“Tanti Anni Prima,” originally written for oboeand piano for the film Enrico IV, is now performedeverywhere as Ave María.

Le Grand Tango, a ten-minute piece for cello andpiano commissioned by the OAS Division of Arts,was dedicated to Mstislav Rostropovich, to whomPiazzolla sent the score. Written in ternary form,the work bears all Piazzolla’s hallmarks: tight con-struction, strong accents, harmonic tensions,rhythmic complexity and melodic inspiration, allapparent from the fierce cello scrapes at the begin-ning. Piazzolla uses intervals not frequently visitedon the cello fingerboard. Its largely tender mood,notably on display in the cello’s snaking melodic

line in the reflective middle section, becomes moreprofoundly complex in its emotional range towardthe end. With its intricate juxtapositions of drivingrhythms and heartrending melodies, it is perhapsthe most exciting music Piazzolla ever wrote, a truemasterpiece. Piazzolla was eager for Rostropovichto play it, but the chance did not come for eightyears. Rostropovich, having looked at the music,astounded by the great talent of Astor, decided hewould include it in a concert. He made somechanges in the cello part and wanted Piazzolla tohear them before he played the piece. Accordingly,in April 1990, he rehearsed it with Argentinepianist Susana Mendelievich in a room at theTeatro Colón, and Piazzolla gently coached themaestro in tango style—“Yes, tan-go, tan-go, tan-go.” The two men took an instant liking to oneanother. It was, says Mendelievich, “as ifRostropovich had played tangos all his life.”

Five Pieces for Guitar (1984). “Campero” is amilonga sureña (from the south) dedicated toPiazzolla’s father. “Romántico” “Acen-tuado” and“Compadre” are all related to the urban music ofBuenos Aires. Percussions elements and cadences,reminiscent of Piazzolla’s improvisation on thebandoneón, bring us closer to the tango. “Tristón”(Rather Sad) is a tribute to the children who diedduring the Nigerian Civil War. The music is afuneral dirge composed by Piazzolla after watchinga documentary on the war.