Simply great music and great playing
hardhelmet (lyee@netvigator.com) | hong kong | 09/05/1999
(5 out of 5 stars)
"thank you to kremer and friends for bringing us yet another remarkable recording on piazzolla. i'm not a fan of tango and have not listened to any of piazzolla's own recordings, but am already overwhelmed by these tango-fugues completely. with the transcriptions and playing at such a standard, i suspect even piazzolla would smile. speaking from the music itself, kremer and friends have brought every drop of emotion alive. the dynamics of the playing is so strong that it embrace everything from bach's structure to debussy's tone colour and schnittke's blood and sweat tension. i would recommend this cd to anyone who likes great music. once again, thank you to kremer and his energetic kremerata baltica!"
I want to give six stars~!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
hardhelmet (lyee@netvigator.com) | 08/12/2000
(5 out of 5 stars)
"this was my first piazzolla cd, and it made me fall in love with him immediately! The "angel" tracks are incredible...so mysterious in the beginning..but gradually builds up to such a desperate, romantic climax. Piazzolla is a genius for adding some life to classical music!!!!! the rest of the tracks in the beginning and end are funky...i can never ever get bored of the cd. i have been listening to it almost daily for a year! i hope that everyone will enjoy this cd as much as i did, because it converted me from a classical liker to a classical lover!!!!!!!!"
An Interesting Selection
Kurt Harding | Boerne TX | 09/15/2009
(3 out of 5 stars)
"No one can accuse Gidon Kremer of being musically timid. During his long career, he has put his own stamp on a lot of famous pieces. But none of his work fascinates me more than what he has done with the music of Astor Piazzolla. On the first several albums Kremer recorded of Piazzolla's music, the selections were eclectic yet mostly very familiar to Piazzolla enthusiasts. On Tango Ballet, Kremer tackles the familiar Concierto del Angel but also the much lesser-known Tango Ballet and Tres Piezas Para Orquesta de Camara. My guess is that whether or not this works for you depends highly on your familiarity with the music.
Personally, I don't find this effort nearly as appealing as earlier Kremer interpretations of Piazzolla. It begins very slowly and doesn't begin to gain traction until the introduction of the Concierto del Angel. Even then, only Milonga del Angel truly stands out.
On third segment of this recording, only the Preludio to the Tres Piezas trio of pieces spoke strongly to me.
I bought this CD nearly a decade ago and so have had ample time to listen and analyze the music. There is no doubt of the virtuosity of the play, its just that Kremer's choice of mostly very obscure pieces weakens what otherwise may have been a great album.
The CD comes attractively housed in digipak format and contains a very interesting booklet containing commentary about both Kremer and Piazzolla in four languages. Even though I give this only three stars, there is enough enjoyable here so that Tango Ballet is something to which I will return on occasion"
Track Listings (13) - Disc #1
