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Bailamos!
Bailamos! Let's Dance! Is a program full of Latin rhythm and melody featuring works by the master of
Tango, Astor Piazolla, and the beautiful suite of seven Cuban dances for woodwind quintet by Paquito
D'Rivera. We challenge our audience to stay in their seats!
Program:
"Aires tropicales" for woodwind quintet
PAQUITO D'RIVERA
One of the most well known cross-over artists in the music field today, Paquito D’Rivera was born in Havana, Cuba, and
began his career as a child prodigy, playing both the clarinet and saxophone with the Cuban National Symphony Orchestra.
He has rapidly gained a reputation as an accomplished composer, revealing his versatility and widespread influences. His
music and arrangements are in the repertory of many leading ensembles throughout North and South America.
Commissioned by the Aspen Wind Quintet and premiered in New York City in 1994, Aires Tropicales has been performed by
many other prominent quintets, including Montreal’s ‘Pentaedre’ and now by Ventus Machina!!
The Alborada introduction, hesitant and tentative as befits its title (a "morning song") is over almost before it begins. The
Son, with its relentless ostinato Latin bass line in the bassoon and horn, is the most extended movement of the seven. It
takes its inspiration (and its title) from the most popular Cuban dance form of the late 1800s, with its roots in African
rhythms. The insinuating and seductive Habanera features the oboe, clarinet, and bassoon in an homage to the dance widely
believed to be the ancestor of the tango. The bittersweet tone continues in the Vals Venezolano, a waltz dedicated to
Venezuela's Antonio Lauro. Dizzyness, an homage to jazz legend Dizzy Gillespie, employs the most complex harmonic
language, for an effect that is indeed a bit dizzy. The Contradanza, another traditional Cuban dance dedicated to Cuban
composer Ernesto Lecuona, evokes the most vivid images of actual dancing in the suite. The concluding Afro begins with a
slow flute solo, followed soon by an ever more energetic dance over yet another African ostinato.
-- Dennis Bade/paquitodrivera.com/C. Goodwin
“Tango Suite” arr for woodwind quintet by Jack Sharretts
ASTOR PIAZZOLLA
Astor Piazzolla was born in Mar del Plata, Argentina in 1921, and was educated in New York City until he was 15. Beginning
on classical piano, his father gave him a bandonéon when he was 10.
Returning to Beunos Aires, he played in orchestras and composed, adding new elements such as classical, jazz and folk
music to the traditional tango. He toured all over the world and became one of the most famous Argentinians.
After a long illness, Piazzolla died at age 71 in 1992.
Piazzolla wrote most of his tangos for a quintet that consisted of bandoneon, piano, violin, electric guitar and bass, but this
music translates easily into arrangements, and is well-suited to the sounds and colours available to the woodwind quintet.
“Libertango” arr for woodwind quintet by Jeff Scott
ASTOR PIAZZOLLA
Written while Piazzolla was living in Rome, Libertango is one of his most well known pieces, which he referred to as “sort of a
song of liberty.” A hard driving piece in his unique nuevo tango style, it has been transcribed for many different instrumental
and vocal combinations and was on his first Italian LP also titled Libertango.
--International Opus
“Milonga Sin Palabras” arr for woodwind quintet by William Scribner
ASTOR PIAZZOLLA
Although this piece is not a tango, the Milonga Sin Palabras (Milonga without Words) is typical of Piazzolla’s emotional and
pensive style. The milonga is a musical song genre found in Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay and Chile.
--International Opus
“Dos Tropicos” Prélude Tropical en forme de Habanera
MATHIEU LUSSIER
Canadian bassoonist and Baroque bassoonist Mathieu Lussier is known as, ‘a versatile musician with an inquiring mind, (who)
energetically and passionately promotes the bassoon and baroque bassoon as solo instruments throughout North America
and Europe. He devotes a good deal of his time to chamber music performance as a member of the Ensemble Pentaèdre de
Montreal, the Caliban Quartet of Bassoonists (Toronto), and the ensemble Musica Franca. His colourful compositions are
regularly performed in concerts in North America, Europe, and Australia.
Dos Tropicos opens with a ‘dreamy’ clarinet solo, and winds its way through the Habanera form to the second, brief but
brilliant Allegro, sub-titled the Tropic of Cancer.
“Suite from West Side Story” arr for woodwind quintet by Richard Price
LEONARD BERNSTEIN
Conductor, composer, pianist, author, broadcaster, humanitarian—Leonard Bernstein left indelible marks on an astonishing
range of endeavours. He was the New York Philharmonic’s music director from 1958 to 1969, the first native-born conductor
to take charge of a major American orchestra. In later years, his guest conducting engagements earned him as lofty an
international reputation as the one he enjoyed in America. Bernstein also composed music throughout his career, ranging
from witty, light-hearted songs and superb stage musicals to substantial operas, ballets, concertos, and symphonies. The
Broadway musicals Candide and West Side Story came into being during the same period. West Side Story won success from
the start.
-- Don Anderson, 2013
In a nutshell, a “hit” is something that’s huge today and gone tomorrow. At best, it may retire gracefully, to be nursed by
posterity’s nostalgics or, like On the Town, snuggled in a cosy corner of the repertoire. Very, very rarely does a composer
produce a “hit that never dies”, one that goes on winning the hearts of generation after generation. In 1957, through his
music for West Side Story, Bernstein all but bulldozed his way into this exclusive company.
However – much as our romantic bones would like us to imagine otherwise – it didn’t happen overnight, and neither did it
happen in a blaze of untrammelled inspiration. Instead, it took nine years of dedicated – albeit for a long time intermittent –
hard slog, and much of what Bernstein described as “re-re-re-writing”. The results, however, more than justified the effort.
Arguably the definitive musical, West Side Story broke new ground on several fronts. Broadway musicals are not known for
their seriousness yet, episodes of fun and frolics notwithstanding, West Side Story relates a heartrending tragedy of truly
operatic proportions. However, an opera it is not – its entire technique and approach, right down to the traditional division of
the rôles of “composer” and “orchestrator”, is that of the musical comedy.
Again, although inevitably stylised, it is a far cry from traditional escapist entertainment, adopting as it does an unflinching,
raw-knuckled approach to a wholly realistic, contemporary “social problem”. Moreover (dare I suggest?) it has a more
credible plot than the Shakespearean original on which it is based!
--Paul Serotsky, 2007