– General Description:
The Ensemble de la Plata is a professional Tango Ensemble that mainly specializes in the music of Astor Piazzolla (1921-1992) on the following instruments: strings, accordion, piano, guitar and vocals. This is a superb CD and not at all what you would expect because it is not tango music in the ordinary sense. The compositions are captivating and complex with top-notch playing by all the musicians. The vocals (when used) are best when dramatic, only faltering in the last piece (Che Tango Che).
– FCC Compliant: YES
1. (3:21) Yo Soy Maria - upbeat and fun; nice vocals
2. (5:13) Suite Del Angel: Introduccion al Angel - slow and mysterious intro, breaks into a faster sexy tango, then back to slow
3. (6:24) Suite Del Angel: Milonga del Angel - relaxed continuation of previous theme, night time at the cafe, slowly builds and falls back
4. (3:35) Suite Del Angel: La Muerte del Angel - fast; pace picks up and builds, marching and fuller in orchestration, then relaxes again, then returns to determination and dramatic ending
5. (4:55) Double Concerto (Introduccion) - very spare and delicate composition
6. ***(5:56) Double Concerto: Milonga - wonderful fleshing out of the intro, again spare and moving, then becoming happy and festive, then back to spare
7. (6:49) Double Concerto: Tango - pace picks up again, very syncopated theme walking up the scale, then relaxing again, builds to dramatic ending
8. ****(5:11) Balada Para Un Loco - talking over music, then she starts singing; very much in the Kurt Weill vein
9. ***(2:39) Serie Diabolica: Vayamos al Diablo - syncopated fast moving piano motive accented with percussion and then strings; really nice and evil sounding
10. (6:46) Serie Diabolica: Romance del Diablo - airy, relaxed and sinister in a Vertigo sort of way
11. (4:08) Serie Diabolica: Tango del Diablo - sharp wake-up call after the previous, various dramatic attacks from all instruments, throw down ending
12. (2:41) Che Tango Che - vocals added; Broadway-sounding