Martin Palmeri (1965-)
Misa a Buenos Aires "Misatango"
Tango Gloria

Heidi Maria Taubert, soprano
Annekathrin Laabs, alto
Clemens Heidrich, basse
Sächsisches Vocalensemble
Cuarteto Rotterdam
Dresdner Kapellsolisten
Matthias Jung, direction

Qui dit Argentine dit Tango. Le compositeur argentin Martin Palmeri (né en 1965), héritier d’Astor Piazzolla, mêle vigoureusement et talentueusement le genre à une approche plus classique. Résultat, deux œuvres originales hors de tout sentier battu. La "Misa a Buenos Aires" (1996) fait penser à la Messe en Si Mineur de Bach dans laquelle l’orchestre baroque aurait été remplacé par un quatuor de tango accompagné d’un orchestre à cordes. Fugues, parties chorales, arias se combinent à une musique un peu populaire et réserve une place de choix au bandonéon. "Tango Gloria" (2014) fait preuve de plus de sophistication. A la base précédente, elle ajoute des vents et explore des modes expressifs témoignant d’une plus grande maturité de son auteur. De bout en bout, c’est la joie de vivre qui s’exprime dans ces deux pages colorées et aux combinaisons inhabituelles. On regrettera toutefois parfois un certain manque d’engagement du Sächisches Vocalensemble mais surtout le timbre de la soprano Heide Maria Taubert assez désagréable et inapproprié. Enfin, la prise de son avantage les solistes rendant une écoute déséquilibrée. Un disque pour les curieux. (Thierry Jacques Collet)

Martín Palmeri’s tango mass is inspired by his native Argentina’s traditional tango and in particular by Astor Piazzolla’s tango nuevo. Piazzolla developed a"new tango" intended no longer as dance music but for the concert stage; by incorporating contemporary forms and musical developments it gave rise to a complex genre of art music. The Misa a Buenos Aires premiered by the Orquesta Sinfónica de Cuba in 1996 demonstrates Palmeri’s impressive and equally entertaining talent for integrating stylistic features of the tango into his compositions. The textual basis of the work is the classical Catholic Ordinary of the Mass as it has been set to music for centuries. The scoring for mezzo-soprano, mixed choir, tango quartet, and string orchestra remains close to the authentic ensembles of the tango orchestras of Palmeri’s native country. Here what is above all exciting is how imaginatively he employs the playing resources of the instruments. Typical techniques of the tango, this rhythmically emphatic dance in which the melody instruments are also used percussively to give impulses, play an important role here. The outstanding employment of the bandoneón, sometimes as a singing voice, then again as a rhythm instrument, here guarantees the preservation of the "tango soul". Melodic leading, harmony, and the rhythmic structures are also recognizable as tango stylistic means to non-experts. It is with great melodic imaginative richness that Palmeri blends the various tone colors of the tango with the various characteristics of the individual parts of the mass. The Gloria, premiered in 2014, a good eighteen years after the tango mass, is of somewhat greater complexity – both in compositional technique and in harmony – and leaves behind the pleasant tone of the mass. In all of its parts, however, here too the melodic and emotional expressive variety remains. Here European tradition and the tango are brought together in a finely crafted and compelling manner.