ASTORIA presents Astor Piazzolla - Poésia
Described as Argentina's Villa-Lobos, Astor Piazzolla gave tango its letters of nobility. Thanks to his compositions, the genre has become emancipated and has nurtured a renewed repertoire, at the crossroads of the learned and the popular.

The son of Italian immigrants, Astor Piazzolla was born in the province of Buenos Aires. In 1924, his family moved to New York, where Astor began studying the bandoneon. He met Carlos Gardel and took piano lessons from Bella Wilda, a disciple of Serge Rachmaninov. Returning to Buenos Aires in 1937, he continued his training with Alberto Ginastera and founded his first orchestra in 1946, after having played bandoneon in Aníbal Troïlo's famous ensemble.

In the early 1950s, Astor Piazzolla turned to composition and won a French government grant to study in Paris with Nadia Boulanger. Boulanger encouraged him to remain faithful to his roots and to the music of his native country, tango. On his return to Argentina, Piazzolla founded a quintet with which he performed extensively, promoting the spread of tango throughout the world. In 1967, he composed the tango opera Maria de Buenos-Aires in collaboration with the poet Horacio Ferrer. Despite great success abroad, the work was contested in South America.

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Astor Piazzolla's political stance earned him the deep hatred of the Argentine government. In 1971, he moved back to Paris, to the Cité des Arts. From then on, he was much in demand: he composed a cello concerto in response to a commission from the UN, wrote the incidental music for Songe d'une nuit d'été for the Comédie Française, and several film scores for which he won various awards. Sensitive to jazz, Astor Piazzolla incorporated elements of this music into his own compositions. Also inspired by contemporary music, he adapted tango as a singular means of expression.

ASTORIA revisits Astor Piazzolla's great "popular standards" with Libertando, Oblivion, Adios Nonino, Balada para un loco, Rinascero and Yo soy Maria.