Music by Astor Piazzolla.
Floraleda Sacchi (Harp), Maristella Patuzzi (Violin).
All arrangements by Floraleda Sacchi.

Tracklist:

1. Libertango
2. Milonga del ángel
3. Muerte del ángel
4. Resurrección del ángel
5. Escualo
6. Ave Maria
7. Verano porteño
8. Otono porteño
9. Inverno porteño
10. Primavera porteña
11. Tanguango
12. Fugata-Adiós Noniño Fantasia
13. Oblivion
14. Bordel 1900
15. Café 1930
16. Nightclub 1960
17. Concert 1990

Total Time 73′

© 2015 DECCA 481 1489

“In the dark rhythm of a dance, full of dreams and wisdom, the illusion of understand, through art, life and death.” (Blue Tangos, Paolo Conte)

The Argentine tango is dance, music, song and culture. Mixed together in its mestizo origin there is the melancholy of emigrants who have left their own country and their hope for a better future. In its various manifestations  – as a dance for men only, a sensual dance in the brothels, a Milonga (a sublimation of street hero, Gaucho and Compadre), a Tango Song (telling, with exaggerated sentimentality, of the loss and the treachery of love), a (more sophisticated) Tango Waltz or an instrumental tango (with added jazz and classical influences)  – the tango – or perhaps I should use the secret Lunfardo language and say gotán – for many people is a way of thinking, a world, a lifestyle, but also a symbol of being Argentine or Uruguayan, of recognising oneself as such, a musical backing that contributes to creating the mythology of towns and cities.

“If you are sad, the Tango gently caresses your melancholy, if you are happy it is the perfect musical accompaniment with which to project your joy onto other people. Your feelings and moods, your happiness and sadness are the things that define its colour and meaning. A piece of music with broad cadences and a particularly slow rhythm may strike you as nostalgic but a friend may find it intriguing and full of sensuality. Which of the two impressions is more truthful? Both, because that is what Tango is. It makes its way your heart through whatever channel is open at the time and takes on that quality. […] I made a revolution in tango, I broke the old moulds. […] I still can’t believe that some pseudo-critics continue to accuse me of having murdered tango. I  just performed plastic surgery on it. Now, if my music is more elaborate, if it is harder to listen to, they can blame it on one thing: I killed myself studying! […] In fact someone said recently that I am famous but not popular” (Astor Piazzolla).

For many years Maristella and I had only listened to and watched tango in all its declensions without experiencing it directly. Many people say that the tango is very sensual. Piazzolla claimed the contrary, but there is an obsessive quality in the rhythm, the repetition of wide chords, the sinuosity of the chromaticism that appears again and again in its music, and obsession can often be mistaken for sexual passion.

It is complicated to venture into it because the tango is vast and Piazzolla, who occupies an original and controversial position in it, is also a complex figure poised between various genres. Moreover, people like us who come from a classical background find his music more familiar because it draws not only on tradition, but also on the teaching of Ginastera and Nadia Boulanger, with constant reminders of J.S. Bach, Stravinsky and Bartók. However, it is also true that there were no defined scores for the pieces in this recording and we had to work with our ears and musical taste to make music that was Piazzolla’s but that was also ours and, above all, music that belonged to our instruments.

One of the fundamental characteristics of the danced tango is improvisation. A specific choreography is never repeated in the tango (only beginners do this), and once the dancers have learnt the steps they let themselves go without knowing what will happen: this puts them on the alert, straining their eyes and ears for any possibility. We also find this aspect very clearly in Piazzolla, who has left us very different versions of his pieces which nevertheless always remain recognisable. Piazzolla not only introduces complexity and classical or jazz influences but also a great deal of experimentation in search of new colours. “I felt like an intellectual and I was a bit snob too. […] I talk to the bandoneon and sometimes I feel I hurt it: perhaps it is because I play with violence when I want it to sing and scream” (Astor Piazzolla).

So we were convinced that the process of adaptation had to be free and creative: for the violin there was already a fairly well-defined sound image to take as a starting point, but for the harp there was nothing. How was one to make it cry and scream?

We listened to various recordings, often characterised by a violin played with noises and full of vibrato, and Maristella declared, quite categorically, “I want to play it as clear as possible”. This was also the right decision for her violin, made by the young Stradivari, who, as a tribute to the Amati, invented a smooth, noble sound that was very distant from the gloomy idea often associated with the tango. I got down to organising the transcriptions, the subdivision of themes and the arrangement for harp without stinting effects that could become recurrent musical features. In an attempt to transfer the method used by Piazzolla in the process of creation I alternated between delicate and violent timbres. “I grew up in that violent climate. That’s why I became a quarrelsome. Perhaps that also marked my music” (Astor Piazzolla).

We feel that we have created a personal version of this music and we very much enjoyed finding a point of agreement, like two dancers prompting one another. Hence the title, “Intimately Tango”, because of the nature of the music, which points directly at feelings, and because this recording, in a way, is rather more intimately ours than is usually the case.

(Floraleda Sacchi)

REVIEWS

Incidere Piazzolla oggi è una sfida e un rischio. Tutti credono di conoscerlo. Floraleda e Maristella propongono un Piazzolla intimo e malinconico, dove il virtuosismo si trasforma in sentimento e anima. Lontano dai luoghi comuni che hanno accompagnato il tango, questo album ridà il piacere di ascoltare e riascoltare brani splendidi, sottolineati da un’interpretazione intensa.
Grazia Lissi, IlSole24Ore

Un duo che esegue capolavori del tango argentino, dimostrando una sorprendente creatività nel rivestire la musica popolare di eleganza classica. 
Renzo Allegri, Chi

Un’arpa, un violino e il tango si fa magico: Funziona a meraviglia l’alchimia tra l’arpista Floraleda Sacchi e la violinista maristella Patuzzi. Le due artiste offrono una rilettura molto personale, intima, come suggerisce il titolo, di alcuni tanghi di Astor Piazzola. Da brividi Milonga del Angel.
Famiglia Cristiana

Virtuosisticamente, ma senza essere accigliati, anzi con giocosità e garbo che rendono anche i passaggi nostalgici un’ombra passeggera seppur carica di poesia. Senza ammiccamenti grossolanamente popolareggianti, semmai con orgoglio spirituale, individuale e rispetto per l’autore. […] Intimamente Tango, alla lettera.
Angelo Foletto, Suonare, agosto 2015

Magico il tocco delle due interpreti […] accurate le trascrizioni per violino e arpa delle due musiciste. […] L’interpretazione del duo Maristella Patuzzi – Floraleda Sacchi è ineccepibile, ricca di carica e intensità emotiva.
A. Cima, Il Settimanale

L’originale timbrica mette in risalto l’affascinante poetica musicale del grande argentino e non mancano ovviamente tutti i suoi brani più famosi. […] L’arpa da un tocco di raffinatezza in più a un’operazione già di per se affascinante
L. Fertonani per BresicaOggi

Tango per violino e arpa: la musica classica incontra il jazz e l’improvvisazione. Floraleda Sacchi e Maristella Patuzzi, tentano, riuscendoci, un viaggio musicale che sposa rigore e sperimentazione.
F. Greco, Agi.it

Un tango capace di accendersi in chiave elettrica, rendendosi in questo modo fruibile da una platea ancor più vasta, con modernità e malinconia che lottano ad armi pari, dando vita ad un’operazione tanto ardita quanto ben realizzata.
Gianmarco Regaldi, AllMusic

L’arpista Floraleda Sacchi e la violinista Maristella Patuzzi hanno preso Astor Piazzolla è lo hanno riletto. Ne è uscito un disco, avvincente, moderno, fresco…
Fabrizio Basso, Sky.it Mag

★★★★★ Cosa succede se al Tango di Piazzolla togliamo il bandoneon ? E se lo sostituiamo con uno Stradivari e con un’arpa classica ? Tutto e niente. Prendiamo il brano famosissimo che apre il Cd, Libertango: di primo acchito la mancanza dello trumento tradizionale, un po’ folklorico, un po’ plebeo, può apparirci come una specie di voragine che però scompare in pochi istanti, colmata dal fraseggio di un violino famoso, risalente al 1687, e di un’arpa. A questo punto c’è solo l’armonia melanconica, modulata tra luci e ombre, con cadenze diverse, ma in fondo unitarie, che è il denominatore comune di tutta la musica di Piazzolla alla quale è giusto abbandonarsi, perché è l’unico modo per fruirla, per capirla, per amarla. E allora, con questo “scambio” non succede proprio nulla: la musica resta lì, col suo messaggio, come è sempre successo (e il vecchio Bach ne è il testimone). Coraggio, accendiamo il lettore CD e ascoltiamo per l’ennesima volta “Oblivion”: le due talentuose interpreti ci faranno rivivere, preservandola proprio dall’oblio, l’arte di uno dei più grandi musicisti del XX secolo.
Angelo Formenti, CD Classico

Questo disco ribadisce la necessità di letture che suonino diverse da quanto già ascoltato, nel tentativo di svelare le molteplici verità racchiuse in ogni opera d’arte.
Tommaselli, Amadeus

Cette belle complicité, installée entre les deux musiciennes, s’est poursuivie dans la «Suite del ángel (Milonga, Muerte, Resurrectión)», «Fugata-Adios Nonino» (pour violon ), «Oblivion» (pour harpe) du grand compositeur argentin Astor Piazzolla (1921-1992), des compositions très riches, à travers lesquelles les solistes ont pu exprimer pleinement leur sensibilité, peignant de superbes palettes de couleurs abstraites et évanescentes.
On a eu droit, également, au «Libertango» qui conclut de manière festive leur récital avec des airs de tango, emportés, enflamés, touchants et attachants originalement interprétés sur harpe.
Le ravissement et l’adhésion du public n’étaient que justice. On en redemande.
Nedim, La Presse

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