‘Beautiful playing on a lovely,
mellow-sounding guitar by master
guitarist Enea Leone’ (Fanfare).
The Italian guitarist Enea Leone has
made several, critically acclaimed
recordings for Brilliant Classics, in
repertoire ranging from first complete
recordings of the studies by
Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco and
Fernando Sor, to more popular
repertoire, from Argentina and from
the catalogue of Sergio Leone, with the
Leone album attracting an LP reissue.
For his latest album, Leone stays in
the popular vein, with classic tracks
by Astor Piazzolla, in solo guitar
arrangements mostly made by
Leone himself. Adios Nonino, Milonga
del Angel, Oblivion and Libertango these
are just some of the tangos featured
on the new album, which makes a
perfect introduction to the melancholy
art of Piazzolla, as balladeer and
musical poet of 20th-century Argentina.
The sound of the modern tango is
defined by the bandoneon, an
instrument brought to Buenos Aires at
the beginning of the 20th century by
German immigrants, possibly sailors.
The instrument invested the
existing genre with a new potential for
expressing deep, passionate feelings.
In 1950 a brilliant young bandoneon
player called Astor Piazzolla left Buenos
Aires for Paris, where he went to
study classical composition with Nadia
Boulanger. Having also grown up
in the US, he mixed elements of
Tango with both jazz and with forms
and harmonies borrowed from the
sphere of classical music, thereby
creating what he called Tango Nuevo.
Argentinean musicians and audiences
were slow to embrace Piazzolla’s new
idiom, which caught on much more
rapidly abroad. The emotional and
technical complexity of these tangos
made them easier to listen than to
dance to. However, once Tango Nuevo
became almost ubiquitous elsewhere,
Piazzolla was feted back at home as a
master of Argentinean music.
The strength of his melodies has
outlived him, most especially in their
suitability for transcription to other
instruments, such as violin and guitar.
Leone has made these transcriptions
specifically for the new album, which
should win new fans both for him and
for the subtle art of Piazzolla.