Isabelle van Keulen

Classical music lovers all over the world will know her name: violinist Isabelle van Keulen(1966) is a soloist who, for many years now, has built a strong career worldwide. She plays with all the important orchestra’s, performs in the famous concert halls and keeps on recording extraordinary CD’s of a very high level. Now she dares to do something totally different! She wanted to do this for many years and now her dream can come true to play and record the music of Astor Piazzolla. This music she has loved since she was a child of six years old. This album not only gives us insight in Piazzolla himself but also tells more about the typical tango sound and how this is produced and why, according to the musicians, this music is so moving and goes straight to the heart!

The worldwide growth of interest in Astor Piazzolla’s music may have slowed somewhat, but part of the appeal of his works lies in their protean adaptability to almost any instrumental combination, and performances by new groups continue to appear. Van Keulen’s group is a quartet, with violin (van Keulen herself), bandoneón, piano, and double bass. The result is a sort of distillation of Piazzolla’s compositions, more “classical” in its effect even than Gidon Kremer’s best-selling Piazzolla recordings, which have a good dose of fantasy overlaid on the music. The selection includes a good number of the best-known Piazzolla compositions, the most famous of all, “Adiós Nonino”, and “Balada Para Un Loco“. For newcomers to Piazzolla the best place to start is still probably with his own recordings, but this intriguingly dispassionate version will be of interest to those looking for ways to present Piazzolla in classical concert settings.