Piazzolla: Adiós Nonino for String Quintet (arr. Soteldo)

About the Composition

Rejected by traditional tango groups and almost ignored by label records, Piazzolla moved to the United States in 1958 and began a project he called Jazz-Tango.

He forms a quintet where they play pieces by Piazzolla, other Argentine tango composers, and jazz composers. With the particular musical aesthetic, this work is recorded in the album: 'Take me dancing!' [G] 1959, New York City [P] 1959, TICO EE.UU.

However, Piazzolla is not satisfied with the result.

In 1959, while Piazzolla had a tour in Central America with the dancers Juan Carlos Copes and María Nieves Rego received the news of his father's death1 during a show in Puerto Rico. This news, added to the tour failure, the financial problems, and the nostalgia for his country, led Piazzolla to depression. In October, upon returning to the place where he temporarily resided with his family in New York, he composed Adiós Nonino.

Dad asked us to leave him alone for a few hours. We went into the kitchen. First there was absolute silence. After a while, we heard the bandoneon playing. It was a very sad melody, terribly sad. He was composing “Adiós Nonino.” Daniel Piazzolla, son of Ástor. Astor, Diana Piazzolla, 1986.

With these difficult circumstances, his stay in New York becomes unpleasant, and frustrated by his Jazz-Tango project, he returns to Buenos Aires. In 1960, Piazzolla created the ensemble ‘Quinteto Nuevo Tango’; he defined a before and after in his career. This ensemble became the fundamental template for his future works, and he would return every time he became frustrated with another project. It should be noted with this instrumentation template, he achieved great impact at the moment, and he made his most famous pieces known.

Astor Piazzolla keeped a difficult relation with the record labels, it started when RCA Victor made a requirement, some long play (LP) with classical tangos that Piazzolla called ¿Piazzolla o no? Bailable y apiazolado, as a condition to let him record another LP with his Works called Piazzolla interpret a Piazzolla. It is proper to say Astor Piazzolla never had the producers he deserved.

The oldest unreleased live recordings date from this time. It was not until after his death that it went on sale in CD format. The top moment with his Quintet was the concert at the Philharmonic Hall in New York, where they played the Devil series and the pieces that completed the Angel series.

In 1973, Piazzolla suffered a heart attack that forced him to reduce his activity and move to Italy. There he formed the Electronic Ensemble with Italian musicians. From 1973 to 1977 he gave a new approach to his work, he experimented with electronic music, creating a fusion that some people would describe as Jazz-Rock, but Piazzolla was never convinced by this definition.

After that, Piazzolla returned to Argentina in 1978 and looked for new musicians to come back to the first quintet template. He needed new blood to renovate the “Quinteto Nuevo Tango,” and the musicians were Hector Console, Double Bass; Fernando Suarez Paz, Violin; Pablo Ziegler, Piano, and Oscar López Ruíz, Electric Guitar. Although Oscar López Ruíz had already alternate with other guitar player since the beginning of the quintet in 1960.

In the next decade, Piazzolla recorded a few studio albums with this template and gave many concerts in South America, Europe, Japan, and the United States. The repertoire of these concerts revolved around the four seasons of Buenos Aires, the Angel Series, Tristezas de un Doble A, Libertango, Adiós Nonino, Escualo, Mumuki, and Chin chin, among others.

The most remarkable concerts are: the Teatro Regina concert in 1982 with Roberto Goyeneche, the Vienna concert in 1983, the Montreal concert (at the International Festival Jazz) and the Paris concert with Milva in 1984 and the Central Park concert in 1987.At the same time, he would record many soundtracks for films, such as 'El infierno tan temido', 'Volver', 'El exilio de Gardel' or 'Sur'. He also makes special appearances with Jairo, Alberto Cortez, André Heller, Georges Moustaki and appear on the program for Chico Cesar and Caetano Veloso.