Are all these arrangements of yours—the Mahler lieder and symphonies, Diabelli Variations, Mozart, Schumann—very malleable?
Piazzolla eventually found a place for his compositions in the classical music section of your local CD store — – but this enshrinement did not take place in earnest until after his death, and even then it relied on the efforts of others who wrote arrangements of this music suitable for the concert hall. Pianists, cellists, violinist, string quartets, yea the whole highbrow establishment eventually tried to grab hold of Piazzolla’s tango, capture its elusive rhythmic stutter. Even music conservatory icons – cellists Yo-Yo Ma and Mstislav Rostropovich, pianist Emanuel Ax, Kronos and other string quartets – would offer their personal tributes to tango. As we have seen, the motion picture industry has done the same; indeed, it was trying to co-opt the tango even before Gardel was enticed in front of the cameras. On Broadway, the tango has been the inspiration for various box office successes. Everyone, it seems, wants to export a bit of the Buenos Aires mystique for their own projects.
