Ravinia 2025 Issue 6

1930 ). Piazzolla enters the picture in Nightclub 1960 , the year he returned to Argentina from New York and founded his revolutionary group Quinteto Nuevo Tango. Transforming tango yet again, from a social to concert phenomenon, Piazzolla treats his listeners to a Concert d’aujo- urd’hui (contemporary concert). Oblivion (arranged by José Bragato) A little-known segment of Piazzolla’s profes- sional life involved film. He contributed to more than 55 soundtracks and appeared on screen in a handful of movies. Oblivion comes from the 1984 film Enrico IV , an adaptation of Luigi Pi- randello’s three-act tragedy (1921), directed by Marco Bellocchio and starring Marcello Mas- troianni. An aristocrat dressed as the Holy Ro- man Emperor, Henry IV, falls from his horse and suffers a blow to his head during the annual pre-Lenten Carnival festivities. Upon regaining consciousness, the disoriented man believes himself to be the real Emperor. Enrico’s family moves him to the Umbrian countryside, trans- forms a villa into a replica of the real Henry IV’s 11th-century imperial palace at Goslar, and staffs it with imposter servants—meticulously sus- taining this elaborate deception for two decades. ALBERTO GINASTERA (1916–1983) Danza de la moza donosa , op. 2, no. 2 (arranged by Juan Pérez Florestán) The name Alberto Ginastera has become virtu- ally synonymous with Argentine classical music. Like many Argentineans, his ethnic background reflected a mixed European heritage: his father was of Catalan descent, and his mother came from an Italian family. Alberto, on the other hand, possessed an utterly Argentine spirit nur- tured on the streets of Buenos Aires. He entered the Williams Conservatory as a talented pianist barely 12 years old and graduated seven years later with distinction in composition. The young musician won his first composition award in a competition sponsored by the music society El Unisono in 1934. Ginastera next completed an extremely broad and demanding course of study at the Conservatorio Nacional de Música (1936– 38), again excelling in composition. From this point onward, Ginastera intensified his efforts at cultivating a musical language enriched by indigenous Argentine rhythms and melodic constructions. Widespread recognition followed the acclaimed world premiere of a dance suite from his ballet Estancia in 1941. That same year, a professorship in composition at the Conservato- rio Nacional and an appointment as chair of mu- sic at the Liceo Militar General San Martin capped his quick rise to the pinnacle of Argen- tine musical society. International acclaim fol- lowed on the heels of his domestic triumphs. Gi- nastera received a Guggenheim Foundation grant in 1942 but postponed his study in the United States until after the war. He was an active participant in the International Society for Con- temporary Music in the ’40s and ’50s. During the first regime of Juan Perón, Ginastera was stripped of the directorship of the Conservatorio de Músi- ca y Arte Escénico, which he had founded in 1948. He resumed this position after the Perón government was toppled in 1955. Ginastera was appointed dean at the Universidad Católica Ar- gentina and professor at the Universidad de la Plata three years later. This esteemed national musician left Argentina in 1969 and lived his last years in Geneva, where he died on June 25, 1983. Ginastera composed the Danzas argentinas , op. 2, for solo piano in 1937, an early work be- longing to his self-described Objective National- ist phase (1934–48) in which he overtly emulated folk styles. In Danza del viejo boyero (Dance of the Old Shepherd), Ginastera couched his sim- ple melodic material within a modernist, poly- tonal harmonic setting. More melancholic is the Danza de la moza donosa (Dance of the Beautiful Maiden), a tender, lilting dance. Danza del gau- cho matrero (Dance of the Arrogant Cowboy) portrays the gaucho as a brash, wild character. This piano trio arrangement of Danza de la moza donosa is the work of Spanish pianist Juan Pérez Floristán (b. 1993), who has earned first-prize honors in the Paloma O’Shea Santander Inter- national Piano Competition (2015), Kissingen Piano Olympics (2018), and Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Master Competition (2021). CARLOS GARDEL (1890-1935) “Por una cabeza” (By a Head) (arranged by Dario Ayasta) A profound mystique surrounded Carlos Gardel, arguably the most famous of the early tango singers as well as a composer. Born in Toulouse, France, two-year-old Charles Romuald Gardés (his birth name) moved to Buenos Aires with his Alberto Ginastera unwed mother. Musical aspirations interrupted his schooling at age 16. Within a few years, Gar- del had formed a duo with Uruguayan singer José Razzano. Tours throughout South America and Europe greatly expanded his reputation, first as a singer of folk music and, after 1917, as a major interpreter of tango. (A gunshot wound he suf- fered in a brawl in 1915 temporarily collapsed one lung but fortunately had no lasting effect on his singing.) Gardel dissolved his partnership with Razzano in 1925 to pursue a solo career. Invariably traveling with a guitar accompanist, Gardel performed for extended periods of time in Europe, primarily in Spain and France. His last visit to Argentina and Uruguay came in 1933. Gardel returned to Europe on November 7, then traveled to New York for his radio broadcast debut over NBC Radio on New Year’s Eve. He made several movie musicals over the next year, among them El Tango en Broadway, Cazadores de estrellas with Bing Crosby, Richard Tauber, and Ray Noble; El día que me quieras (in which 13-year-old Astor Piazzolla made a cameo ap- pearance); and Tango Bar . In April 1935, Gardel embarked on a tour of the Caribbean and South America. His life met a tragic ending when his plane crashed in Medellín on June 24 under sus- picious circumstances. Gardel composed the tango song “Por una cabe- za” (By a Head) in 1935 to lyrics by Alfredo Le Pera about a man whose addiction to gambling at the racetrack—where a horse can lose “by a head”—equals his passion for women. This tan- go provided the musical backdrop for the sen- sual dance scene in Scent of a Woman (1992) in which the blind Lieutenant Colonel Frank Slade (Al Pacino) romances the young and beautiful Donna (Gabrielle Anwar). –Program notes © 2025 Todd E. Sullivan Carlos Gardel RAVINIAMAGAZINE • AUG. 18 – AUG. 31, 2025 66 ANNEMARIEHEINRICH(GINASTERA)