The Quinteto is preparing a 2021 international tour to celebrate what would have been Piazzolla’s 100th birthday. That’s the spirit of Quinteto Astor Piazzolla - Pablo Mainetti, bandoneón Nicolás Guerschberg, piano Serdar Geldymuradov, violin Armando de La Vega, guitar Daniel Falasca, double bass and Julián Vat, musical director - an ensemble of soloists putting their impeccable technique at the service of music both cosmopolitan and passionate. This music also demands street wisdom, boldness, and a certain quality that the maestro called “roña” (grime) - the perfection of the imperfect. Instrumental virtuosity is indispensable - but not enough.
With that purpose, Laura Escalada Piazzolla, his companion of nearly 20 years, created the Fundación Astor Piazzolla and, in 1998, founded the Quinteto Astor Piazzolla, a repertory group to perform and update the sound of his emblematic ensemble.Ĭreating an ensemble to play Piazzolla is no easy task. From then on, others would have to continue his efforts and champion his music. Piazzolla’s death, on July 4, 1992, marked a new stage for his work. It was a superb group that performed his, by now, classics, and pushed him to create new masterpieces. But in 1978, back in Buenos Aires, he went back to the sound of the quintet, assembling a new group that would stay with him for the next decade. Part chamber group, part jazz band, but deeply rooted in the spirit and history of tango, the quintet offered Piazzolla a broad range of resources and possibilities that proved critical for his New Tango.Ī decade later, Piazzolla, always restless and attuned to the musical trends of the time, dissolved the quintet, experimented with other ensembles, and decided to settle for a time in Europe. It was an unusual group, especially for tango, as it featured bandoneon, violin, electric guitar, piano, and double bass. In 1960, bandoneonist and composer Astor Piazzolla looked for a new instrument to interpret his ideas and put together his first great quintet.