Sinfonía de Tango
PROGRAMME NOTES
Astor Piazzolla Tres Minutos con la Realidad / Melancólico Buenos Aires / Lo Que Vendrá / Prepárense
Eduardo Rovira Contrapunteando / Sinfonia / Serial Dodecafónico
Julián Plaza Nostálgico / Sensiblero
Jorge Caldara Patético
Peregrino Paulos Inspiración
Luis Rubinstein Noche de Amor
Reynaldo Nichele Baile de Etiqueta
José Bragato Vanguardista
Osvaldo Manzi Febril
Enrique Lanno Elegía para el Amigo Negro
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06.03.2026 SCHOUWBURG HASSELT
07.03.2026 FLAGEY BRUSSELS
A FALSE CONTROVERSY
PIAZZOLLA – ROVIRA
Astor Piazzolla and Eduardo Rovira are usually presented as the two pioneers of avant-garde tango. It has been claimed that there was a certain rivalry between them, and it is a subject of debate which of the two was the first to modernize tango.
The key year in the radical modernization of tango, called Nuevo Tango by Astor and Tango Moderno by Eduardo, was 1956. The stage for traditional tango had changed dramatically and international opportunities were not promising (...) Neither musician had any work engagements to lose; artistically, they could take any risk they pleased, and that is how they spent the next few years, building a new tango from the prestigious decadence of the previous one. We are talking about two tango intellectuals who were determined to keep working on the creation of a tango which did not yet exist.
Nuevo Tango
Piazzolla, in order to avoid artistic frustration, decided to pursue a career as a classical composer with the famous pedagogue Nadia Boulanger in Paris. During his stay in France (1955) Piazzolla put together a string orchestra with musicians from the Paris opera, along with Lalo Schiffrin on piano, leaving us some of his most exquisite modernist tango works. Enthusiastic about the result obtained in Paris, Astor Piazzolla decided to put together an extended string orchestra with tango soloists in Buenos Aires as a continuation of the previous formation. This project lasted from 1956 until 1958.
Tango Moderno
On the other hand, Rovira was no imitator of Piazzolla. He developed his own identity, and it is only necessary to hear a few bars of his music in order to identify his beautiful and unique style. His desire to expand the use of traditional harmony and orchestration in tango led him to create some of the most innovative tango pieces. Inspired by Stravinsky’s polytonality and polyrhythm, Debussy’s modes and Bartók’s extreme rhythmic changes, Rovira presented his most innovative creation, a dodecaphonic tango, in 1961: the Serial Dodecafónico.
photos 1 & 2: Astor Piazzolla
photos 3 & 4: Eduardo Rovira
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Parallel Pioneers
Something that both Astor Piazzolla and Eduardo Rovira have in common is that both wrote their music for their own ensembles, with the same exacting standards as if it had been written for the classical music world. Both were aware of the importance of their work, but Piazzolla was an outspoken promoter of his disruptive approach to tango, whereas Rovira never managed to project himself in the same way. Astor started to flourish internationally (New York in 1958, Milan in 1974), while Rovira, on the contrary, seemed to isolate himself.
It is surprising how parallel the paths were of Rovira and Piazzolla ran. Despite that, they met only once. Rovira saw and admired Piazzolla, and showed that he did so. Piazzolla regarded Rovira as a valued innovator and respected him, often referring to him in those terms. They were both part of the same nocturnal music scene in Buenos Aires. Both produced their best work in the 1960s, creating one of Argentina’s most exciting musical repertoires.
