L'Achéron

Creation in 2024 

Astor Piazzolla was about thirty years old when he went to France to study composition with Nadia Boulanger at the American Conservatory in Fontainebleau. He stayed in Paris for several years and the teaching he received from the woman considered to be the greatest musical educator of the 20th century changed the Argentine musician's writing. Nadia Boulanger showed him that he must not forget where he came from, the tango, his primary identity, and invited him to sublimate it rather than try to erase it.

This unique project illustrates the meeting of these two exceptional musicians by highlighting their respective origins, traditional music for Piazzolla, Carlos Gardel but also Alberto Ginastera, or the influences of Gabriel Fauré and his sister Lili for Nadia Boulanger. A great lover of early music, the latter conducted and recorded an impressive number of works from the Renaissance and the Baroque, an inspiration represented here by the viola da gamba consort.

The mirror-like conversation between the modern 'classical' pieces and the arrangements of Piazzolla's themes from this Parisian period are just like the encounter between the bandoneon and the viols: surprising, magical, unheard of.

Cast

François Joubert-Caillet, viola da gamba 
Julie Dessaint, tenor viol
Aude-Marie Piloz, tenor viol 
Sarah van Oudenhove, bass viol 
Jean-Baptiste Henry, bandoneon

Programme

Nadia Boulanger Trois improvisations, Pièce sur des airs populaires flamands 
Lili Boulanger Soleils de septembre 
Gabriel Fauré Pavane 
Igor Stravinsky Tango
Johann Sebastian Bach Aus Liebe
Astor Piazzolla Luz y sombra, Chau Paris, Rio Sena, Fracanapa, Preparense, etc. 
Alberto Ginastera Triste, Vidala 
Carlos Gardel El día que me quieras