Piazzólla: “Maria de Buenos Aires”
Because this is a somewhat weird title, some explanation is in order:
Who is María? Horacio Ferrer, author of the text for this unconventional ‘operita’, said she was a representation of Buenos Aires, Argentina, embodying the spirit of tango itself.
María de Buenos Aires lies outside any known genre. According to Ferrer, its highly poetic libretto was written ‘not to be understood, but to create emotion and atmosphere’. Piazzolla’s music, too, offers a charged mix of classical forms and Argentinian traditions – milonga, tango and the sparring spoken word of the traditional payada.
In this, the first major recording since the 1980s, the group known as ‘Mr McFall’s Chamber’ are joined by their long-term collaborators Valentina Montoya Martínez and Nicholas Mulroy, narrator Juanjo Lopez Vidal, and internationally acclaimed tango musicians Victor Villena and Cyril Garac.
Here is an extract of the recording session:
