Prom 70: Tango Prom – 4.09.18

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

19:30
ON TV
Royal Albert Hall


Pablo Ziegler piano
Héctor Del Curto bandoneon
Claudio Ragazzi guitar
Pedro Giraudo double bass
Franco Pinna drums
Britten Sinfonia
Clark Rundell Conductor

A celebration of the heady, sexually charged Latin American tango, from its origins in the bars of 1880s Buenos Aires, through to Ástor Piazzolla’s Nuevo Tango that emerged in the 1950s. The story also embraces the Finnish tango tradition of the early 20th century – steeped in the themes of love, sorrow and nature – and comes bang up to date with some of the latest tango music. Showcasing Grammy Award-winning pianist Pablo Ziegler along with leading singers, dancers and instrumentalists from Europe, the USA and Argentina, the raw and earthy vitality of the tango is explored, from the sultry intimacy of the bandoneon to the big-band orchestral forces of the Britten Sinfonia.

[Old Grumpy]

Just caught this halfway through. Enjoying the music, but could do without KD's contribution!

Also on BBC 4 TV on Friday.

OG

[teamsaint]

Me too, OG. Any experts around to offer a view ?
( did you find the sound in the interval chat hopelessly muffled ?)

Or do I mean very well muffled ?

[edashtav]

Me too, OG. Any experts around to offer a view ?
( did you find the sound in the interval chat hopelessly muffled ?)

Or do I mean very well muffled ?

Not an expert but I learned more about non-Piazzolla repertoire.
The interval talk tested my cloth ears, too.

[BBMmk2]

Have'nt missed much then!

[Serial_Apologist]

A little tango goes a long way for me, so I opted out from listening to this one.

[ahinton]

Just caught this halfway through. Enjoying the music, but could do without KD's contribution!

I didn't listen to it but I suppose that they just had to have KD on it, given her immense expertise on and experience of dance!...

[Old Grumpy]

I didn't listen to it but I suppose that they just had to have KD on it, given her immense expertise on and experience of dance!...

[french frank]

I didn't listen to it but I suppose that they just had to have KD on it, given her immense expertise on and experience of dance!...

Probably asked R3 presenters what Proms they'd like to present. Queen of the Dance suggested - "Tango Prom". It's so unstuffy and inclusive.

But take no notice of me - I haven't switched on a radio for years - just carp irrelevantly from the sidelines

[DracoM]

Gave up after 30 unrelenting, and very, very dull minutes. To have a whole evening centred round ONE rhythm pattern..........a non-stop Ravel's Bolero maybe next time?

I love S.Smerican music but this Prom shamefully demeaned their target music and audience.

[Serial_Apologist]

Gave up after 30 unrelenting, and very, very dull minutes. To have a whole evening centred round ONE rhythm pattern..........a non-stop Ravel's Bolero maybe next time?

I love S.Smerican music but this Prom shamefully demeaned their target music and audience.

Exactly my problem with this form of music. Glad someone else at least feels the same here! An Argentinian lady friend partly agrees with me on this one!

[Wychwood]

This Prom was deemed worthy of an item on Radio 4's Six O'clock News yesterday evening. Nothing more than an inflated trail. No surprise, obviously, given the Proms trail-fest across the airwaves. But for this to have infected Radio 4's flagship news bulletin.....well, disappointing to put it mildly.

And I, too, didn't get beyond the half-hour mark before switching off.

[rauschwerk]

A curate's egg indeed. The best bit of the radio broadcast was the interval feature in which a musician and two dancers talked about the genre and the contributions of various musicians, including Piazzolla.

I play piano in a four piece tango band and have some knowledge of the subject. Under the influence of Piazzolla, tango has been hijacked and turned into music you can't dance the tango to. That is not a criticism of the music as such, but Piazzolla often writes 8 quavers to the bar subdivided 123-123-12 which drives dancers mad. The contributions to this concert of Pablo Ziegler, Piazzolla's onetime pianist, sounded like generic Latin jazz, bearing little or no relationship to Tango imho.

I still might catch up withtheTV broadcast just to see what kind of dancing went on.