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Piazzolla Cien Años:Lord of the Tango@100

Conductor Gisèle Ben-Dor

Gisèle Ben-Dor answers key questions about this definitive Piazzolla project:

Raul da Gama: What secrets has the music of Piazzolla revealed to you [that have not yet been revealed to anyone else]?

Gisèle Ben-Dor: It’s quite an original and mind bending question! I must say that my intuitive immediate response may sound more like a confession than a learned reply. I grew with the discipline of so called “classical” music which admitted no “crossovers”. Back in the day, and even through my many first forays into Latin American music, Piazzolla was simply out.

I remember as I was performing Ginastera’s last opera Beatrix Cenci in Geneva, I had the pleasure of making the acquaintance of Aurora Natola-Ginastera, a known cellist and the composer’s second wife. She almost made me promise that I would never perform Piazzolla in the same concert as I performed Ginastera. And in those days, it simply wasn’t done. Time passed, and some great virtuoso instrumentalists [Gidon Kremer, Daniel Barenboim, Yo Yo-Ma] began to play Piazzolla. They broke the taboo, but in my case, I had already become wonderful friends with Ginastera’s daughter, Georgina Ginastera. Her progressive and generous ideas totally supported the combination of Ginastera and Piazzolla as both being great Argentine composers, each in his own world.

And here is the confession: I always felt nuevo tango was great, I had absorbed so much of its language subconsciously growing up in Uruguay, music that my parents loved and therefore I should not touch with a ten- foot pole but secretly loved, tango with its unforgettable melodies- it takes genius to create such melodies-emotional ferocity and sizzling, complex rhythms, but had harbored the fear that perhaps something was wrong with me! The new found acceptance of Piazzolla’s greatness cemented my intuitive conviction that “music- is -music- is -music”, that “cross-over” no longer signifies much, and that its secrets embrace a much broader spectrum than the conservative one I had grown with.

RdG: What was it like performing his most famous work [“Libertango”] and what did it mean to do so with Juanjo Mosalini?

GbD: I think that if you and I were statisticians we might be placing bets on which may be Piazzolla’s most famous work. Some would say “Adios Nonino”, others indeed “Libertango”, but others might place “Oblivion” or “La Muerte del Angel” at the top. In the case of “Libertango”, the essence of this work is its motoric drive and build- up in both dynamics and speed to a rousing, spinning mad dance.

There are many arrangements of this piece, and Juanjo’s is one of the very best. What I most admire in his performance of “Libertango” is the mastery of dynamics Juanjo possesses which allow him indeed to begin with a whisper – in his performances, it is unbelievable the range of dynamics he commands of his bandoneón – and augment the tension imperceptibly through the dynamics as the piece progresses, so that when the speed reaches its maximum level, one really doesn’t know how that happened, how we got there! It is that convincing.

Raul Da Gama

Based in Milton, Ontario, Canada, Raul is a poet, musician and an accomplished critic whose profound analysis is reinforced by his deep understanding of music, technically as well as historically.

Cien Años: A Paean to Piazzolla and Tango from Conductor Gisèle Ben-Dor and

Bandoneón Soloist Juanjo Mosalini

CD Featuring Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra of Boston Commemorates Influential Argentine Composer’s 100th Anniversary with Four World Premieres

“I have a vision that my work will still be heard in the year 2020 and also in the year 3000,” Astor Piazzolla once brazenly predicted. So far, the man who revolutionized the tango sounds like a prophet.

“Cien Años” is not only an exquisitely expressive celebration marking the centennial of Piazzolla’s birth, the CD honors more than one man’s immeasurable musical contributions. For Uruguayan-born conductor Gisèle Ben-Dor, a fierce champion of Latin American composers, equally important as paying homage to the Argentine nuevo tango legend was capturing the unique, mesmerizing performance of bandoneón player/arranger/composer Juanjo Mosalini on Piazzolla’s most ambitious work—the Aconcagua concerto—and showcasing an exciting new piece she commissioned from this extraordinary musician. Mosalini’s title composition, Cien Años, is in turn a heartfelt 100^th birthday tribute to his own grandfather and the legacy of his family’s four generations of bandoneónists.

Ben-Dor and Mosalini, each an acclaimed performer in their own right, have worked together frequently on world stages. Their collaborations expose the heart of tango as

Piazzolla imagined it: cosmopolitan, an emotional roller coaster, technically virtuosic, savage and tender.

Along with Piazzolla’s monumental concerto, the CD features four world premieres. It was recorded at a January 2020 live performance with Boston’s Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra at the Sanders Theatre in Cambridge, MA, and is scheduled for release on August 5 from Centaur Records. Ben-Dor has previously released a CD for Centaur and another one is upcoming soon after the release of Cien-Años .

It is worth mentioning that Ben-Dor and Mosalini have recorded together for Delos, including two world premieres, Piazzolla’s classically inspired “Tres Movimientos Sinfonicos: Buenos Aires” and Argentine Academy Award winner Luis Bacalov’s “Triple Concerto for Bandoneon, Piano and Soprano”.

In addition to the debut of Cien Años, the concert premiered Mosalini’s Tomá, Tocá, yet another tribute, this one to renowned guitarist Tomás Gubitsch, who played with both Piazzolla and Mosalini’s father Juan Jose. Rounding out the program: his fresh arrangements for Piazzolla’s Four Seasons of Buenos Aires and Libertango. The Four Seasons showcase the unique, original idea of playing the work in one single movement, where the seasons follow each other most fluently, as is sometimes the case with nature itself.

Called “an exceptionally lively and intelligent musician” by the Boston Globe, Ben-Dor constantly proves that in a still male-dominated profession, a woman’s place is on the podium. A protégé of Leonard Bernstein, she is widely regarded as one of the world’s finest exponents of the repertoire of Ginastera, Revueltas, Villa-Lobos and Luis Bacalov, as well as Piazzolla. Her list of trailblazing recordings of Latin-American music, almost always world premieres, continues to grow and includes a CD of Ginastera’s vocal music (“The Vocal Album”) with Placido Domingo,

She has been a guest conductor with ensembles and orchestras around the world, including the New York Philharmonic, London Symphony, London Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Houston Symphony, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, New World Symphony, Israel Philharmonic, Jerusalem Symphony and the Israel Chamber Orchestra. Maestra Ben-Dor is currently Conductor Laureate of the Santa Barbara Symphony and Conductor Emerita of the Boston Pro-Arte Chamber Orchestra.

A charismatic, smoldering presence on stage, Mosalini “is a one man tour de force” “[He] astonishes with his facility and musicianship…and is another unsung musical star.” The supremely gifted bandoneón virtuoso has performed with prestigious musicians, ensembles and orchestras worldwide, among them the London Symphony, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Orchestre Philarmonique de Radio France Israel Symphony, Seoul Philharmonic, the Bern Symphony, the Winterthur Symphony, the Orchestre de Bretagne, Santa Barbara Symphony, the Orchestra del Teatro Massimo Di Palermo and the Budapest Concert Orchestra.

“A few years ago, after I heard Juanjo perform the Aconcagua I was so electrified that I told him” you have to record this,” Ben-Dor recalls. “To me it was the ultimate, something extraordinary. For the album, I commissioned him to write an original piece and asked him to arrange the Four Seasons to highlight the bandoneón rather than the usual arrangement for violin.”

Much like Piazzolla, Mosalini shows his one-of-a-kind artistry and inventiveness as both an interpreter, playing with absolute authority over this difficult instrument, and as a composer. In the lyrical Cien Años, Mosalini uses the familiar language of the tango but takes it in new, unexpected directions. “I dedicated the piece to my grandfather and it has classical tango elements that reflect my culture, my heritage and what I listened to. The melody has a certain nostalgic feel as well as a lot of joy and hope,” he says. Ben-Dor adds

“it was a fortuitous coincidence that both Piazzolla’s anniversary and Juanjo’s celebration of his grandfather’s anniversary came to fall under the Cien Años , A Hundred Years, idea. It adds a lot of meaning, where both dedicatees are remembered nostalgically as well as virtuosically”.

Piazzolla may cast a giant shadow over the tango genre, but Mosalini is clearly up to the task of making this music his own. He puts his stamp on Four Seasons by creatively combining Piazzolla’s four separate movements into one seamless work with the bandoneón taking center stage. In Mosalini’s reimagining of the cadenza from Aconcagua, the concerto becomes a dialogue between two bold tango masters from different generations. He is a native improviser speaking in the language of Piazzolla.

“During the centenary celebrations around the world, everybody’s trying to play Piazzolla’s music the way he did,” says the recording’s Special Consultant Pablo Aslan. “What this CD does is explore his repertoire in different ways and from a different angle. Mosalini is an incredible musician with great ideas and mind blowing technique. When you hear his music on this album, you can hear all of his influences, including the music that his father played in his sixties. It’s almost like a parallel road to Piazzolla.”

On “Cien Años,” Ben-Dor, Mosalini and the Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra of Boston seize the opportunity to add their own artistic creativity atop the foundation laid by the architect of Nuevo Tango and celebrate the enduring legacy of this musical genius.

Gisèle Ben-Dor y Juanjo Mosalini rinden homenaje a Piazzolla

Por BERENICE BAUTISTA August 4, 2021

CIUDAD DE MÉXICO (AP) — La directora de orquesta uruguaya Gisèle Ben-Dor y el bandoneonista argentino Juanjo Mosalini rinden homenaje a Astor Piazzolla en el centenario de su nacimiento con el álbum “Cien años”, que incluye obras clásicas del maestro y composiciones nuevas de Mosalini.

“De dónde viene el tango nos peleamos los uruguayos y los argentinos”, dijo Ben-Dor en una entrevista telefónica desde Israel. “Pero no hay duda de dónde nació Piazzolla”, agregó con humor sobre el revolucionario compositor argentino, autor de “Las cuatro estaciones porteñas”.

El álbum, que será lanzado el jueves, se grabó en enero de 2020 en varias sesiones con la Orquesta de Cámara Pro Arte de Boston, donde también lo presentaron en vivo. Esperaban publicarlo en marzo de este año, cerca de la fecha de nacimiento de Piazzolla, pero la pandemia aplazó su salida.

“Todo mundo salió con una cantidad de discos de Piazzolla y nosotros tranquilitos, así como montados en un burro, llegamos en agosto”, dijo Ben-Dor.

La directora convocó Mosalini, a quien considera el mejor intérprete del concierto para bandoneón “Aconcagua” de Piazzolla. Ambos han colaborado desde hace dos décadas. Tras recibir la invitación, Mosalini incluyó también sus composiciones originales “Tomá tocá”, en honor al guitarrista eléctrico de Piazzolla Tomás Gubitsch en cuyo conjunto ha tocado, así como “Cien años”, una canción que dedica a su padre y abuelo, quienes como él fueron bandoneonistas, compuesta en 2017 en el centenario del nacimiento de su abuelo.

Mosalini, quien hizo los arreglos para “Libertango” y “Las cuatro estaciones porteñas”, dijo que trató de unificar las estaciones, compuestas en forma independiente entre 1965 y 1970, como si se tratara de una suite.

“No tenían nada que ver una con la otra, ya que pasaron varios años”, dijo Mosalini en entrevista telefónica desde París, donde reside desde los 11 años. “Y también está esa cuestión de que muchas de las composiciones de Astor terminan de la misma forma… Me atreví a modificar ciertas estructuras de la música de Astor para llegar a esta versión con una cierta unidad”.

Mosalini escuchaba la música de Piazzolla cuando era adolescente al mismo tiempo que Queen, The Police y pop. Para él este maestro ha sido “un embajador para la expresión del tango”.

“Tiene una escritura que va mucho más allá del tango en el sentido que es una forma de escribir y son melodías y composiciones que son universales”, dijo.

Por su parte, Ben-Dor lo considera un clásico contemporáneo.

“Si algo tenía sus raíces en el folclor, o en el jazz, o en el tango se decía crossover”, dijo la directora. “Pero ahora ya no es crossover, ahora ya es del repertorio clásico, ya está en el repertorio general la música de Piazzolla… El público al final juzga lo que queda, lo que tiene importancia no sólo para este momento, sino para el futuro, para las generaciones, y el público está con Piazzolla”.

Ben-Dor comenzó a dirigir en Montevideo cuando era muy joven.

“En forma totalmente inocente y espontánea, tenía un grupo que yo dirigía cuando tenía 12 años y hacía todos los arreglos y ensayábamos… A mí no se me ocurría que podría haber un problema con que fuera mujer, lo tuve que aprender, pero a mí no se me ocurría”, dijo.

“Yo sabía que yo a los 12 años ya estaba dirigiendo, entonces a mí no me podían convencer de que una mujer no puede dirigir, imposible, porque yo ya tenía esa imagen de mí misma, de haberlo hecho cuando era muy joven”, agregó.

A los 14 años le ofrecieron ser profesora de música. En 1973 llegó a Israel para estudiar dirección orquestal. También estudió dirección “intensiva” en Yale. Ha dirigido orquestas en ciudades estadounidenses como Boston; Annapolis, Maryland, y Santa Bárbara, California. Ben-Dor es esposa y madre de dos hijos (un psiquiatra-neurólogo y un financista). Ahora también es abuela de tres varones y una niña.

“Creo que hay un porcentaje bajo de las mujeres directoras, están menos representadas que en otras profesiones”, dijo. “Creo que es porque es una profesión muy, muy difícil y tiene que ser algo natural… Tiene que tener el alimento de todo lo que rodea a una chica que quiere dedicarse a eso”.

En junio, recibió el premio “Great Immigrant, Great American” de la organización Carnegie Corporation of New York por su trayectoria como directora y promotora de la música latinoamericana en Estados Unidos a través de su fundación sin fines de lucro. El premio destaca las contribuciones de los inmigrantes para fortalecer a Estados Unidos.

“Muy, muy orgullosa. Soy ciudadana americana desde el año 2000… Es un gran honor”, dijo Ben-Dor. “Al presidente que teníamos últimamente no le gustaban mucho los inmigrantes, pero ahora creo que las cosas van a cambiar. Porque al fin y al cabo somos muchos los inmigrantes y cada uno aporta un valor”.

The universality of the tango and the recognition of one of the best conductors of orchestras in the world.

Gisele Ben-Dor is listed as one of the best conductors in the world!

Ms. Ben-Dor is currently the Laureate Conductor of the Santa Barbara Symphony and Conductor Emerita of the Boston Pro-Arte Chamber Orchestra.

This Uruguayan led the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, the London, Houston, Jerusalem symphony, the New York Philharmonic, Israel and the Jerusalem chamber orchestra, among others. With Yale University studies, she does not forget her roots.

Ben-Dor is a trailblazer, one of the first and still one of the world’s few female conductors in the male-dominated profession. Ben- Dor is a fierce advocate for Latin American composers, including Astor Piazzolla.

Her most recent, monumental and ambitious project is the album “Cien años”, which includes exquisite classical works by the Maestro and new compositions by the virtuoso bandoneonist Juanjo Mosalini, accompanied by the masterful Boston Pro-Arte Chamber Orchestra to honor and commemorate in style the incalculable legacy of Piazzolla’s One Hundred Years.

Paula Lamas