The tango's roots lie in Spanish and Italian folk music brought to Argentina by immigrants such as Piazzolla's Italian parents. It is most closely associated with the émigré musicians in Buenos Aires, who developed the tango over generations. Originally, it was seen as street music, closely associated with sex and violence. In its early stages, respectable Argentineans viewed the tango as too lascivious to be performed by women in public. Instead, male couples danced it on Buenos Aries street corners, eventually introducing it into local brothels. There foreign sailors made the dance's acquaintance and brought it to Europe and North American ports.

The instrument most favored by the early tango players was - and even today still is - the bandoneón, an instrument brought to Argentina by German immigrants. Although similar to the accordion and concertina, the bandoneón lacks regular keyboards, but has buttons on both sides. What clearly differentiates it from most accordions is that most buttons on the bandoneón produce a different note when the player pushes the instrument to close than when pulling it open.

One mentions this because Piazzolla was a great bandoneón player, even though he was too embarrassed to admit to playing the instrument when he first met the famous music teacher, Nadia Boulanger, with whom he came to study in Paris. Although the Argentinean came to Paris from his native country, he spent most of his childhood and youth in New York. He returned to his country at age 16, but the American musical influences would never leave him.

Some compare Piazzolla to George Gershwin, who also took American folk music and jazz to create both music for the concert stage and for popular consumption. While Gershwin, however, never got a chance to fulfill his promising talent because of his early death, Piazzolla was 71 when he died in 1992. Consequently, he was able to create outstanding chamber music, as well as orchestral and concertante works that brought him renown across the world, often featuring the bandoneón. He did, however, never write an opera, despite writing at least 500 works over the years. In this field Gershwin surpassed him with Porky and Bess, one of the finest 20^th century operas imaginable, but one that many opera companies still hesitate to bring to their stages.

In some respects, however, Piazzolla comes closer to the oeuvre of Aaron Copland in that both musicians wove folk music far more effectively into their orchestral compositions. Gershwin, as stated before, only started to leave the popular field behind him and create great music for the classical concert stage just a few years before he died from a brain tumor at age 39 in 1937.

When you here Piazzolla's music, you know instinctively that he is South American, that he is Argentinean. That it is why one finds such pleasure in listening to Piazzolla as performed by the Versus Ensemble on this new Naxos CD. The liner notes are rather brief when it comes to identifying the members of the Versus Ensemble. I believe, however, I am fairly safe in stating that it hails from Spain, which makes it a unique chamber music ensemble because it dedicates itself to the interpretation of Piazzolla's music, rather than some Spanish composer.

Featured works on this CD are the Maria de Buenos Aires Suite, Verano Porteno, and Milonga del Angel. Ten of the 11 tracks were recorded live at the Caja Rural Auditorium in Granada, Spain in 2006, while the 11^th was recorded live at the Tango World Meeting in Valparaiso, Chile in 2007.

The music is both lively and contemplative. Piazzolla for a time worked with the poet Horacio Ferrer, who recites and sings his own words on five tracks of this CD. We also get to hear Spanish soprano Maria Rey-Joly and vocalist Enrique Moratalla. But, having said much about the bandoneón, don't expect to hear it on this CD. Instead, the instruments are violin, alto and soprano saxophones, piano, guitar, and double bass.

In 1967 Piazzolla invited Ferrer to write a show that would combine recitation with instrumentals and songs. The result was Maria de Buenos Aires, which premiered at the Planet Theater in Buenos Aires in May 1968. The work's subtitle was Tango Operita. At its core is Maria, who personifies Buenos Aires in all its grandeur and decay, its euphoric highs and bittersweet melancholic moods. Maria herself stands in for Buenos Aires at night. Listening to Ferrer, one almost feels one is being transposed into a smoky barroom scene of a different time and place. It is an amazing performance.