Piazzolla: Para el Ángel Jeroen van Veen

• Astor Piazzolla (1921 - 1992):
• 1Piazzolla: Milonga del ángel03:48
• 2Piazzolla: La muerte del ángel02:09
• 3Piazzolla: Resurrecctión del ángel04:57
• Piazzolla: 4 Canciones porteñas:
• 4Piazzolla: 4 Canciones porteñas: I. Alguien le dice al tango02:08
• 5Piazzolla: 4 Canciones porteñas: II. Jacinto chiclana03:14
• 6Piazzolla: 4 Canciones porteñas: III. el titere02:21
• 7Piazzolla: 4 Canciones porteñas: IV. a don nicanor paredes03:31
• Piazzolla: Estaciones:
• 8Piazzolla: Estaciones: I. Primavera portena04:39
• 9Piazzolla: Estaciones: II. Verano porteno04:59
• 10Piazzolla: Estaciones: III. Otono porteno04:24
• 11Piazzolla: Estaciones: IV. Invierno porteno03:44
• Piazzolla: 2 Tango Preludes:
• 12Piazzolla: 2 Tango Preludes: I. Leijia's Game, Tango04:39
• Astor Piazzolla:
• 13Piazzolla: 2 Tango Preludes: II. Flora's Game, Milonga08:45
• 14Piazzolla: El viaje04:42
• 15Piazzolla: Milonga02:02
• 16Piazzolla: Vuelvo al sur04:19
• 17Piazzolla: Chiquilin de bachin03:40
• 18Piazzolla: Michelangelo 7003:16
• Piazzolla: Suite para piano, Op. 2:
• 19Piazzolla: Suite para piano, Op. 2: I. Preludio02:01
• 20Piazzolla: Suite para piano, Op. 2: II. Siciliana03:18
• 21Piazzolla: Suite para piano, Op. 2: III. Toccata02:28
• 22Piazzolla: Adiós nonino, Tango Rhapsody10:54
• Astor Piazzolla:
• 23Piazzolla: Oblivion04:03
• 24Piazzolla: Ouverture05:15
• 25Piazzolla: Mumuki08:05
• 26Piazzolla: Street Tango04:34
• 27Piazzolla: Milonga for Three06:29
• 28Piazzolla: Ausencias04:35
• Piazzolla: 6 Tangos:
• 29Piazzolla: 6 Tangos: I. Meditango05:37
• 30Piazzolla: 6 Tangos: II. Undertango04:15
• 31Piazzolla: 6 Tangos: III. Violentango04:19
• 32Piazzolla: 6 Tangos: IV. Amelitango04:13
• 33Piazzolla: 6 Tangos: V. Novitango03:46
• 34Piazzolla: 6 Tangos: VI. Tristango07:18
• Astor Piazzolla:
• 35Piazzolla: Libertango03:17
• Total Runtime02:35:44

Info for Piazzolla: Para el Ángel

This new recording of piano music marks the Centenary of Astor Piazzolla’s birth in 1921.

Astor Piazzolla, Argentina’s most famous composer, was the grandson of Italian immigrants, and the melancholy for an abandoned and lost country lends a sweetly poignant note to his music. He was unique in the way he was able to weave the “sweet noises of life” into pure melody and harmony in his works. There is a sort of visual lyricism in his melodies that invest his compositional skill with the strength and vitality of his origins as a folk musician, as an artist who was deeply familiar with every secret of the Tango.

Included are original piano works by Piazzolla as well as Jeroen van Veen’s own arrangements of the famous sets of tangos, and of course the iconic Adiós Nonino.

I play with violence,’ Astor Piazzolla (1921-1992) told one interviewer. ‘My bandoneon must sing and scream – I can’t conceive of pastel tones in tango.’ With an unrivalled discography of minimalist classics to his credit, from Satie to Glass to Yann Tiersen, Jeroen van Veen is ideally placed to return the raw passion and punchy rhythms that belong to the music of Piazzolla in any context. Jeroen Van Veen’s selection runs the gamut of Piazzolla’s expressive vocabulary, from the tenderly intimate title track and the Impressionist brushstrokes of Oblivion to the tough and defiant Libertango which concludes the album in truly anthemic fashion. CD2 begins with another masterpiece of street music, Adios Nonino. A string of other masterpieces follow, making their effect as surely on the piano as they do on the guitar or Piazzolla’s own instrument, the bandoneon. There is the simple, sweet sentiment of Ausencias, the flamboyant Street Tango and a collection of six contrasting tangos from 1974, from the dark and swirling Meditango to the grave resignation of Tristango. Marking the centenary of Piazzolla’s birth in 1921, this new album pays devoted homage to a composer who came to craft one of the defining sounds of the late 20th-century, when tango left the barrios and clubs of Buenos Aires and then the dance clubs of America and Europe to find a home in recital and concert halls worldwide.

As ‘the leading exponent of minimalism today’ (Fanfare), Jeroen Van Veen’s playing will speak to an audience which has never danced a tango in its life but thrills to the undertow of melancholy and dazzling flair that characterises great tango interpreters past and present. ‘From the first time I heard his music, I felt attracted to it,’ says the pianist in his booklet essay. ‘The rhythm, the melodic value, the atmosphere, it is hard to describe but it felt like a natural attraction. The kind of feeling that the music is part of your music memory; it was already there.’

Jeroen van Veen, piano

Jeroen Van Veen
born 1969 started playing the piano at the age of 7. He studied at the Utrecht Conservatory with Alwin Bär and Håkon Austbö. In 1993 he passed the Performing Artists' Exam. Van Veen has played with orchestras conducted by Howard Williams, Peter Eötvös, Neal Stulberg and Robert Craft. He has played recitals in Austria, Belgium, Canada, England, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Russia & the USA. Van Veen attended master classes with Claude Helffer, Hans-Peter & Volker Stenzl and Roberto Szidon. He was invited to several festivals; Reder Piano Festival (1988), Festival der Kunsten in Bad Gleichenberg (1992), Wien Modern (1993), Holland Dance Festival (1998) Lek Art Festival (1996-2007). Van Veen recorded for major Dutch Radio- and Television companies like AVRO, NOS, IKON, NCRV, TROS/Internet, WTBC-TV & Radio (Florida, U.S.A.) and Moscow Television. In 1992, Van Veen recorded his first CD with his brother Maarten as the internationally recognized Piano duo Van Veen. In 1995 Piano duo Van Veen made their debut in the United States. They were prizewinners in the prestigious 4th International Murray Dranoff Two Piano Competition in Miami, Florida. After this achievement they toured the United States and Canada many times. The documentary "Two Pianos One Passion" (nominated with an Emmy Award 1996) documents them as a duo.

In 1995 Jeroen Van Veen founded the duo Sandra & Jeroen van Veen, a piano duo with Sandra Mol. As such, they mainly perform (minimal) music for multiple pianos by Erik Satie, Douwe Eisenga, Simeon ten Holt and many more. Beside his career as a solo pianist Van Veen also participates in the following ensembles: ‘Piano Ensemble’, ‘The International Piano Quartet’, ‘Piano Mania’, ‘DJ Piano’ and ‘Jeroen van Veen & Friends’.

The various (>80) compositions by Van Veen may be described as ‘Minimal Music’ with different faces, Crossovers to Jazz, Blues, Soundscape, Avant-Garde, Techno, Trance and Pop Music. Currently Mr. Van Veen is director of Van Veen Productions, Chairman of the Simeon ten Holt Foundation, Culemborg Cultural Foundation, Pianomania Foundation and artistic director of several music festivals in Culemborg, Utrecht and Veldhoven. He is active in Murray Dranoff Two Piano Competition based in Miami (USA). Over the last 20 years Van Veen recorded more than 100 CDs for several labels Mirasound, Koch, Naxos, Brilliant Classics, and his own label PIANO. The recording of Les Noces for Koch and Naxos was stated in the New York Times as " the best recording ever". Classics Today on Erik Satie pianoworks four hands, 10 artistic quality, 10 sound quality.

Booklet for Piazzolla: Para el Ángel