The late Astor Piazzolla’s Quinteto Tango Nuevo lives on, in a way, through Tango Futur, a group of young musicians that continues to bridge the Argentine tango’s popular roots with forms and textures that characterize contemporary “art music”. The ensemble’s cracklingly precise performances make cogent cases for a broad range of new tango-inspired works. Oscar Strasnoy’s Mano Brava and Derrumbe, for example, are evocative little etudes built from jumpy, asymmetrical rhythmic patterns and free-falling jazz licks. Gustavo Beytelmann’s delightful tryptich Trois Airs Autour du Tango for alto saxophone and piano makes Piazzolla’s polyphonic shadow-play his own, while a more dissonant brand of sultry agitation colors Carlos Grätzer’s Transmutango, Daniel Bozzani’s Madame Blanche, and Luis Naón’s Alto Voltango, along with two pieces involving spoken and sung text. The latter feature mezzo-soprano Susanna Moncayo, whose smallish yet lusty timbre walks that thin line between “legit” and “illegit”, so to speak. Two Piazzolla neo-classical charmers, the Fuga y Misterio and Chiquilín de Bachín, bookend this stimulating program, capped by BIS’s crispy engineering and excellent booklet notes. [4/19/2003]
