# Arrangements for Astor Piazzolla's Las Cuatro Estaciones Porteñas



## Kiki (Aug 15, 2018)

I was smitten when I first heard Astor Piazzolla's Las Cuatro Estaciones Porteñas (The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires). To be precise, I am talking about *Leonid Desyatnikov*'s arrangement for violin and string orchestra, which is probably the most popular "classical" arrangement of this charismatic work.

I have gone through a few recordings of the *Leonid Desyatnikov* arrangement - *Gidon Kremer*, *David Grimal*, *Katherine Hunka* and *Tianwa Yang*. Love them all.

Then I switched side to *Arabella Steinbacher*'s recording of *Peter von Wienhardt*'s even more violin-concerto-like arrangement.

Then I discovered the *Cappella Gabetta*'s recording of *Roberto Molinelli*'s essentially violin/bandoneon double concerto arrangement that stays more truthful to Piazzolla's original in spirit. Sony's very loud and heavily sweetened recording has been a treat for my audiophile friends who only care about the flashy facets but not a single note of the music; which is a shame because I think this arrangement is awesome.

My latest adventure took me to the piano trio arrangement by *Eckart Runge & Jacques Ammon*, played by the *Artemis Quartet & Jacques Ammon*, and it sounds a lot more seductive than I would have anticipated.

And don't forget Piazzolla's original arrangement (can be easily found on youtube), but it seems these four "seasons" are distributed on several commercial recordings (after all they were conceived individually), and they seem difficult to come by. (I'd love it if someone would tell me I am wrong and there is a record containing all four played by the composer and his group.) So, viva youtube, despite its poor sound quality!

There are many other arrangements... and I'm just beginning to discover them.

*Is there any favourite arrangement (or recording) that you would recommend?*

(Also a bit surprised to see there are quite a few Piazzolla threads in TC, but there isn't one dedicated to the arrangements; although there are threads dedicated to the individual recordings of Gidon Kremer and Lara St. John.)


----------

