Piazzolla: Summer in Buenos Aires

Although later assembled as a suite by the composer, Piazzolla's "Buenos Aires Seasons" were all originally written as separate works. The "Summer" concerto was written first, in the mid-1960s, when Piazzolla's music was not universally accepted in his own country. Conservative music fans viewed his attempts to fuse the tango with jazz and Western classical music with suspicion at best. According to the composer, his music was so unpopular that he even had occasional difficulty catching a taxi cab. Although bossa nova, a similar adaptation of traditional dance music, had recently taken off in Brazil, Piazzolla's "Tango Nuevo" (or "New Tango") was only belatedly accepted. In the "Summer" concerto, Piazzolla quotes Vivaldi's "Winter." The seasons are reversed, after all, in the southern hemisphere!