16 PIAZZOLLA | ESTACIONES PORTEÑAS ∙ ACONCAGUA ∙ OBLIVION What was your artistic approach to this new transcription? Leonid Desyatnikov’s very popular version seemed to me too far removed from Piazzolla’s harmonies. I told Olivier Calmel that I wanted to come as close as possible to the composer’s original material. In fact, I wanted Piazzolla; and nothing less. His music is never syrupy; it is rough-edged, acerbic, even harsh. It can at times become tearful, verging on the sentimental, but only in fleeting passages that stand in contrast to moments of severity and sometimes even violence. Do you perceive any similarities between Piazzolla's Four Seasons and Vivaldi's? They bear the titles Winter, Spring, and so on, but the comparison ends there. They do not depict the seasons and their climates in any literal sense. When one listens to Winter (Invierno Porteño), it is impossible to imagine it as such in Buenos Aires. The pieces tell another story: they offer impressions, deeply personal sensations, even feelings of affection for the city so dear to the composer.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTAwOTQx