Tango, Astor Piazzolla, the Festival Hall, Adrien Bariki-Alaoui, Iro Davlanti-Lo

Is Astor Piazzolla the ultimate tango composer? He’s far the most famous – but that’s not the same thing.

On the night of Friday 14, the Festival was sold out when the Philharmonia Orchestra presented “Marin Alsop conducts Bernstein and Piazzolla”. Actually, the musical fare - structured as a quick chronological trip through twentieth-century Latin American dance-related music - also included Gershwin (“Cuban Overture”), Lobo (“Pé de Vento”). But the evening’s second half consisted of three Piazzolla items: “Aconcagua Concerto” (featuring solo accordion), “Tanti Anni Prima”, and John Linehan’s arrangement of Piazzolla’s most famous composition, “Libertango”.

This was the evening of Valentine’s Day. The final two numbers were danced by Adrien Bariki-Alaoui and Iro Davlanti-Lo (U.K. European and Middle East ~Tango Champions) - the accordionist was Ksenija Sidorova - but the real lure to the audience was that the concert was followed by a free workshop in Argentine tango (free to ticket-holders for the concert, for which tickets had ranged from £15 to £75).

The two dancers and the accordionist were hailed as the heroes of the evening, but my own main applause was for Alsop, who stylishly shaped all the different dance currents of the several scores (Lobo’s music was that of the bossa nova).  She had wryly remarked at the evening’s start that she had once never imagined there could be such a thing as a virtuoso accordionist, but that Sidorova proved her wrong. So now we know what accordion virtuosity can sound like. (The connections and resemblances between accordions and bandoneons are subtle.) Sidorova was glamorous, ingratiating, skilful.

But Piazzolla’s flamboyant music becomes not a celebration of tango but a deconstruction, a deviation, with heightened emphasis on effects of harmony and melody. The great era of tango music was 1925-1955, with Juan D’Arienzo, Carlos Di Sarli among the many composers and players who brought the genre to a peak. Piazzolla (1922-1992) - though he began in that era - upped the sensationalist aspects of the genre, but decreased the essential rhythmic thrill. (“Libertango”, his best known work, is from 1974; the “Aconcagua Concerto” from 1979; “Tanti anni prima” from 1984.) His is exciting music to listen to, but far too emphatic for most dancers, even most dancers skilled in tango.

This drama-laden sensationalism was what Sidorova played on Friday; this drama-laden sensationalism was what Bariki-Alaoui and Davlanti-Lo danced. These two are the founders of the Argentine Tango School, which is based in London. Sure, they showed some of the scintillating footwork of good tango, but there was more emphasis on arching backbends. The duets were squeezed onto the broad but narrow apron of the stage, their emphasis largely on ways of crossing space without depth.  

Only when I turn to watch this young tango couple on YouTube, dancing to tango music from the middle of the last century, do I start to fall in love with them. Their footwork becomes enthralling (not just in speed but in effects of lingering rubato), their conjunction of complex dance phraseology to irresistibly pulsating music intoxicating. I’m grateful to Piazzolla, to the Philharmonia, and to the Festival Hall for introducing me to their work; but actually those cramped their style. Watch them at closer quarters and to tango-friendlier music and you see their artistry. I hope to renew acquaintance with their dancing.