Karen Gomyo/Jones - a Piazzolla trilogy

From the moment Karen Gomyo first heard Astor Piazzolla on disc, at the age of fourteen, she was spellbound: �I had never heard such a combination of sensuality, fierceness, playfulness, sadness and nostalgia.� As a violinist she found the role of the violin in Piazzolla�s music especially inspiring, and soon started playing it herself � first in various group combinations, and eventually together with Piazzolla�s longtime pianist Pablo Ziegler and his Tango Quartet. For the present disc she has chosen to record strings-only versions of three works originally for tango quintet (Seasons), guitar and flute (Histoire), and solo flute (�tudes). Piazzolla�s Cuatro Estaciones were initially conceived neither as a suite nor as a tribute to Vivaldi�s Four Seasons. Verano porte�o (Summer) was composed first, as part of the incidental music for a play, with the other three following several years later. If the Seasons provide a soundtrack to the year as it unfolds in Buenos Aires, Histoire du Tango describes the development of the tango itself in four chapters � from the brothels around year 1900 to the concert halls where Piazzolla himself performed his tango nuevo. These two works frame three of Piazzolla�s Tango �tudes, which Karen Gomyo performs solo, while otherwise being partnered by the strings of the Orchestre National des Pays de la Loire (Seasons) and the guitarist Stephanie Jones (Histoire).