JANUARY 2016, 'Tango Monologues: Juan María Solare' (Piano)

JANUARY 2016, 'Tango Monologues: Juan María Solare' (Piano)

 Reviewed by Ray Picot

This is a tango album to be relished, performed by Juan María Solare - an Argentine master musician who now lives and teaches in Germany. Equally at home with contemporary and traditional music, composing, conducting and directing, and an expert on the tango, he wears his expertise lightly on this engrossing album.  Solare communicates warmly and draws you into the many (for me) unfamiliar pieces. He plays a collection of twelve compositions of his own, offset with an interesting variety of other composers, which assures us of a good diversity of influences and styles which in turn also inform his own works. He takes us on a journey back over 60 years with a rich variety of music, styles and textures. His own distinctively-voiced pieces reflect his diverse interests and, though not connected and like Piazzolla before him, these are idiomatically innovative, offering a more contemporary slant but always glancing back with affection.  Solare reaffirms the authentic styles of the past whilst showing that the milonga and tango are a vital life-force in the 21st century. He also writes wittily and informatively himself on each work reinforcing the thought and care that has gone into this highly recommendable album.

 

 

 

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