PIAZZOLLA: The ACO To Open 2022 With A Tango Celebration

The Australian Chamber Orchestra (ACO) will open its 2022 Season with an intoxicating celebration of Piazzolla and the tango.

Led by ACO Artistic Director Richard Tognetti, the ACO's first national tour of 2022 will feature long-standing friend of the Orchestra, classical accordion virtuoso and arranger James Crabb, as soloist in a program driven by the exhilarating rhythms of South America.

"I'm absolutely thrilled to be back performing with Richard and the ACO musicians," said James. "Every performance with them is always so artistically rewarding and a true celebration of what live music-making is all about. The evocative feast of music on this program is an emotional rollercoaster, full of energy, fun, and passion.

"This uplifting program is the ideal opener to a new season full of hope and I for one can't wait."

The tango was already a melting pot of influences before Piazzolla snatched it from boozy dives and put it into concert halls. He added a classical sensibility and cosmopolitan sophistication to the all-enveloping sensuality of the tango, and his music remains much-loved to this day.

Alongside Piazzolla's popular Libertango and Angels and Devils Suite, the concerts will feature music by South American composers Heitor Villa-Lobos and Carlos Gardel, who, like Piazzolla, shared a passion for the Baroque. The ACO will also give the Australian premiere of American composer Gabriela Lena Frank's South American-inspired Leyendas while Australian composer Elena Kats-Chernin makes a welcome return with Torque, a work written for Richard and the ACO that Kats-Chernin describes as using 'angular rhythms (often borrowed from Tango) and wild gestures to give the impression of a human musical machine'.