Saturday, March 03, 2007
Orquesta Escuela de Tango at the IX Buenos Aires Tango Festival
Thursday, March 1, 2007
The Orquesta Escuela de Tango is exactly what its name implies, a tango orchestra that operates as a school in which young musicians can learn the principle styles of the classic tango orchestras. Supported by the city government of Buenos Aires, the orquesta escuela offers a two year program to Argentine and international musicians and has, in the years since its founding in 2000, trained literally hundreds of players. (There is an interesting semi-documentary film about the founding and development of the orquesta escuela called “Si sos brujo: a tango story.” Made by American filmmaker Caroline Neal, who is married to the founder of the school, Ignacio Varchausky, it was released in 2005 and is very much worth seeing.) The main idea behind the school was to bring musicians who were active in the golden age of tango music (roughly between 1925-1960) who are still alive and willing to teach together with younger musicians who are eager to learn these styles but have had little aside from old recordings to model themselves on.
While the escuela has brought several such “maestros” on board over the years, the main figure for the school has been Emilio Balcarce, a musician and composer who has served as the orchestra’s director since its inception. Time has apparently caught up with the now 89 year old Balcarce, who is retiring from the orchestra and passing the baton of its directorship to bandoneonist Nestor Marconi. Tonight was Balcarce’s farewell concert, and as such was full of not only music but highly emotional pomp and circumstance. Balcarce was presented with awards from SADAIC (the Argentine equivalent of ASCAP), from friends and colleagues; a letter from the mayor of Buenos Aires marking the occasion was read, and the city’s minister of culture gave a short speech, announcing that the band, as of that night, would be renamed the Orquesta Escuela “Emilio Balcarce.” An older woman from the audience spontaneously took the stage mid-concert to give the director a gift and some flowers, hugging him and kissing him before being escorted back to her seat by the stagehands. At the end of the evening Balcarce was presented with a huge bouquet of flowers that he had immediately passed back to his wife, who was watching from about the fifth row of the audience. It was all very emotional, and many people were in tears. Even I had a hard time holding them back.
And then there was the music. Crisp and clean renditions of tango classics in a variety of styles for which the orchestra is famous: “La yumba” a la Pugliese, “El choclo” a la D’Arrienzo, etc. I have heard the group play many times before, and have always been impressed by their technical execution and stylistic fluidity. The musical highlight of this night was when a huge group of the orquesta’s alumni took the stage for the evening’s final song, a rendition of Balcarce’s own “La bordona.” With nearly fifty musicians on stage, the performance pushed the audience over the edge. The standing ovation that followed the piece was such that the group came out and played it over again. A real encore.
Though bittersweet, the whole evening was very special, and I feel lucky to have been there. (Despite the torrential rains earlier that day, the free tickets for the concert had been quickly gobbled up, leaving a ticket-less crowd mulling outside the concert hall beforehand hoping to catch a lucky break and be let in.) Talking with some of the musicians outside afterwards, they seemed both elated and melancholic, with many believing that Balcarce, in one way or another, would be back. “He has talked about retiring for years,” I was told. “He has always said ‘My ears are getting too bad, I can’t hear anymore: I need to retire,’ and then would be back the next week with a new arrangement or composition for the orchestra. We will be hearing from him again.”
Related Link
http://www.buenosaires.gov.ar/areas/cultura/musica/orquesta_tango/escuela.php?menu_id=9466
The Orquesta Escuela de Tango is exactly what its name implies, a tango orchestra that operates as a school in which young musicians can learn the principle styles of the classic tango orchestras. Supported by the city government of Buenos Aires, the orquesta escuela offers a two year program to Argentine and international musicians and has, in the years since its founding in 2000, trained literally hundreds of players. (There is an interesting semi-documentary film about the founding and development of the orquesta escuela called “Si sos brujo: a tango story.” Made by American filmmaker Caroline Neal, who is married to the founder of the school, Ignacio Varchausky, it was released in 2005 and is very much worth seeing.) The main idea behind the school was to bring musicians who were active in the golden age of tango music (roughly between 1925-1960) who are still alive and willing to teach together with younger musicians who are eager to learn these styles but have had little aside from old recordings to model themselves on.
While the escuela has brought several such “maestros” on board over the years, the main figure for the school has been Emilio Balcarce, a musician and composer who has served as the orchestra’s director since its inception. Time has apparently caught up with the now 89 year old Balcarce, who is retiring from the orchestra and passing the baton of its directorship to bandoneonist Nestor Marconi. Tonight was Balcarce’s farewell concert, and as such was full of not only music but highly emotional pomp and circumstance. Balcarce was presented with awards from SADAIC (the Argentine equivalent of ASCAP), from friends and colleagues; a letter from the mayor of Buenos Aires marking the occasion was read, and the city’s minister of culture gave a short speech, announcing that the band, as of that night, would be renamed the Orquesta Escuela “Emilio Balcarce.” An older woman from the audience spontaneously took the stage mid-concert to give the director a gift and some flowers, hugging him and kissing him before being escorted back to her seat by the stagehands. At the end of the evening Balcarce was presented with a huge bouquet of flowers that he had immediately passed back to his wife, who was watching from about the fifth row of the audience. It was all very emotional, and many people were in tears. Even I had a hard time holding them back.
And then there was the music. Crisp and clean renditions of tango classics in a variety of styles for which the orchestra is famous: “La yumba” a la Pugliese, “El choclo” a la D’Arrienzo, etc. I have heard the group play many times before, and have always been impressed by their technical execution and stylistic fluidity. The musical highlight of this night was when a huge group of the orquesta’s alumni took the stage for the evening’s final song, a rendition of Balcarce’s own “La bordona.” With nearly fifty musicians on stage, the performance pushed the audience over the edge. The standing ovation that followed the piece was such that the group came out and played it over again. A real encore.
Though bittersweet, the whole evening was very special, and I feel lucky to have been there. (Despite the torrential rains earlier that day, the free tickets for the concert had been quickly gobbled up, leaving a ticket-less crowd mulling outside the concert hall beforehand hoping to catch a lucky break and be let in.) Talking with some of the musicians outside afterwards, they seemed both elated and melancholic, with many believing that Balcarce, in one way or another, would be back. “He has talked about retiring for years,” I was told. “He has always said ‘My ears are getting too bad, I can’t hear anymore: I need to retire,’ and then would be back the next week with a new arrangement or composition for the orchestra. We will be hearing from him again.”
Related Link
http://www.buenosaires.gov.ar/areas/cultura/musica/orquesta_tango/escuela.php?menu_id=9466
