Anglo-Tango

A very sensitive interpreter who was able to capture, like no other pianist before her, Guastavino's message.' (Association of Argentine Music Critics)

Despite how it sounds, the notion of 'Anglo-Tango' is perhaps not entirely the oxymoron that it might seem. This programme of tangos for solo piano, written exclusively by 20th-century and living British classical composers, offers not only an idiosyncratic exercise in musical border-crossing, but also opens a window onto the particularly British iterations of the longstanding infatuation the tango has engendered globally since the first international tango craze of the 1910s. These tangos, on the one hand displaying a broad and eclectic range of highly individualistic and innovative approaches to the genre, also reveal British composers in dialogue with each other, forging something approaching a collective national tango style. Spanning almost a century, they range from Walton's precedent-setting 'Tango-Pasodoble' to contributions by other grandees of British composition such as Rodney Bennett, Finnissy, Nyman and Birtwistle, alongside a plethora of other pre-eminent names from the British contemporary classical canon.

Returning this gesture of cultural diplomacy and bringing some indigenous verve to the programme is the virtuoso Argentine pianist, Lilia Salsano, who performs the programme from her native province of Santa Fé.

Anthony Burgess: 'Tango'

Antony Hopkins: 'Tango'

Bryan Kelly: 'Tango'

Colin Bayliss: 'A Tentative Tango'

Damian Rees: 'Little My'

Dave Smith: '"Tango" from 1st Piano Concert'

David Matthews: 'One to Tango'

Harrison Birtwistle: 'Betty Freeman: Her Tango'

James Henshall: '¡SaTango!'

John White: 'Sonata No. 108'

Leonard Salzedo: 'The Fugitive': 'Tango'

Malcolm Fox: 'Last Tango in Valhalla'

Michael Finnissy: 'Tango No. 21'

Michael Nyman: 'A Neat Slice of Tango'

Peter Reynolds: 'Tango'

Richard Rodney-Bennett: 'Tango after Syrinx'

Rob Keeley: 'Pentango'

Robin Holloway: '32 Bars of Tango'

William Walton: 'Façade': 'Tango-Pasodoble'

Lilia Salsano: piano

Programme research and curation by: Helen Glaisher-Hernández

Lilia Salsano is considered one of the pre-eminent Argentine pianists of her generation. Since graduating from the Universidad Nacional del Litoral she has garnered numerous prizes both nationally and internationally, and also performs frequently at home and abroad. Most recently she has appeared at the Martha Argerich Festival of Buenos Aires, and as a guest soloist with the Buenos Aires Philharmonic Orchestra at Argentina's Teatro Colón. In 2021 she was also selected to take part in the official Piazzolla centenary celebrations at the Centro Cultural Kirchner. A passionate ambassador for contemporary music and Argentine composers, her 2019 landmark recording of  Guastavino's complete solo piano music was the first to be undertaken by a single pianist. She has also recorded the world premiere album of the complete piano music of Virtú Maragno, and has performed numerous other world premieres, including many pieces dedicated specially to her. Salsano is the resident pianist of the Provincial Symphony Orchestra of Santa Fé and currently a Faculty member at the Antonio Fuentes del Arco Liceo Municipal of Santa Fé.

Presented by ILAMS as part of Echoes Festival 2021 in collaboration with the Instituto Cervantes, with the kind support of the Embassy of Argentina

SNEAK PEEK! Lilia Salsano performs Guastavino