Astor Piazzolla’s Four Seasons of Buenos Aires

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Which season is it with you?

Just now it’s autumn in the northern hemisphere, and spring down south. Which season is it with you?

The reversal of the seasons between the hemispheres can make us feel that at times the climate is better where we are, and at other times better where we wish we were. When we feel like that, it’s often just a question of how we feel about the weather we’re having. Here’s how the UV Weather blog defines climate, weather and season : “”Climate sets the stage for what kind of weather a region can expect. For example, a tropical climate will have hot and humid weather most of the year. Seasons then add variation to this script, causing shifts in weather patterns throughout the year.”

But what happens when things go off script and freak weather conditions lead to huge forest wildfires or dramatic flooding? Instead of simply talking about weather, seasons and climate, terminology evolves : we now refer to global warming  and climate change. As unusual variations and freak events multiply, certain people begin to argue that the situation is irreversible and that this is now a climate crisis or climate emergency.

Putting the seasons to music

Fortunately, there have always been composers to put the seasons to music so we can have them all year round, whatever the weather! You can return to whatever seasonal mood takes your fancy. You can try Stravinsky‘s The Rite of Spring, Janis Joplin singing Summertime, Stan Getz playing Autumn Leaves in his breathy inimitable style, or even Kylie Minogue‘s version of Winter Wonderland.

Antonio Vivaldi dominates the seasonal field with his Four Seasons from 1725. But since 1999, thanks to a masterful arrangement for classical orchestra called Eight Seasons by Leonid Desyatnikov, a concert programme now alternates between movements from The Four Seasons by Vivaldi and those by the Argentinian Astor Piazzolla from his beautiful tango suite The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires, also known as Cuatro Estaciones Porteñas.

Composed 240 years apart, the two suites turn out to be perfect partners. It is time to bring Piazzolla out from the shadow of Vivaldi by taking a closer look at his Four Seasons of Buenos Aires.

Counting the seasons and counting on them

Vivaldi‘s Seasons come in the form of four violin concertos with three movements in each, going from season to season in what would seem to be the traditional order of the cycle, beginning with Spring and ending with Winter.

But life is not like a musical score. Who said there are only 4 seasons? Somebody who doesn’t live in the Tropics where there are 2 seasons, or in India where there are 6, or in China, Vietnam, Japan or Korea where the year is divided into 24 solar periods or solar breaths.

Piazzolla agreed with Vivaldi on the number of seasons when he composed the suite of four tangos which would ultimately be known as The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires between 1965 and 1969. However, he chose a different sequence. He began with Summer, then composed Autumn and Winter, and finished with Spring!

This order – or disorder – is puzzling. Why not begin with Spring as the opening movement like Vivaldi? Was Piazzolla being provocative? He certainly had a reputation for being a bad-tempered rascal who insisted on doing everything his own way.

In fact, in this case he was following instructions, starting with Summer because that was what was written in the script he’d been given. Want to know more? Time to visit Buenos Aires.

Verano Porteño – Summer in Buenos Aires

The summer season in Buenos Aires runs from December to March. This means that Christmas constitutes the end of the calendar year and the end of the school year, so the end of December is also the beginning of the long summer break. And summers are warm. According to the Lonely Planet website : The southern hemisphere summer in Buenos Aires is hot and sultry, with average daytime high temperatures reaching 30°C (86°F). As any Buenos Aires resident will tell you, the humidity makes it feel even hotter, and long hot spells are often broken by dramatic thunderstorms and several days of rain.

Mélissa Kenny and Vanina Steiner live and work in Buenos Aires all year round, and both confirm the summer heat there. Mélissa insists that there are days in January when you spend all your time working out ways to hide from the sun. Vanina agrees but she also points to the maginficent bursts of colours which come the summer art and craft markets to be found Plaza Francia and in the Recoleta neighbourhood of the city.

Both of them mention the calm which descends on an otherwise extremely noisy Buenos Aires in summer – a calm which is regularly interrupted by awesome tormentas eléctricas. Perhaps this is the source of the sense of disquiet which darkens certain passages in Piazzolla’s evocation of summer in Verano Porteño, his musical portrait of Summer in Buenos Aires. The heat and humidity can make life difficult for people who are unable to escape from the city. Sweat it out or sleep it out with a sweet siesta? The choice is yours.

The tango in three movements we now know as Verano Porteño was originally part of a commission for music to illustrate a stage play : Melenita De Oro by Alberto Rodriguez Muñoz. According to a story told by the guitarist Oscar Lopez Ruiz who played with Piazzolla for many years, the piece was actually composed in an emergency writing session on the eve of the studio recording programmed to take place as Astor returned to Buneos Aires following a series of gigs in Brazil by the Quinteto Nuevo Tango in 1965. Although the resulting 4 tracks were ultimately released as an EP by the Quinteto Nuevo Tango, it wasn’t the recording which was heard during the theatre production of Melenita De Oro, but live performances by Piazzolla and his musicians on stage.

Verano Porteño was soon recognized for its musical qualities and was given a permanent place in Piazzolla‘s concert repertoire. The first performance of Verano Porteño outside the context of the stage play was on 26 July 1965 in front of a packed audience at the Biblioteca Sarmiento de Tres Arroyos, in the Province of Buenos Aires. We know this because journalist and photographer Carlos Carrizo was there.

Even today, Verano Porteño is the season from the suite which is played the most, and in a multitude of styles. Here are videos of three examples : a sensitive version for solo guitar by Agustin Luna; the moving collective video performance made during COVID lockdown in Argentina by an ensemble of trombones and tubas from the Orquesta Estable du Teatro Colon de Buenos Aires; and finally, one of the numerous électro-tango versions of the piece recorded in the early 2000s.

Otonõ Porteño – Autumn in Buenos Aires

Autumn in Buenos Aires lasts from March to June. This season is famous for its pleasant temperatures. Mélissa points out the spectacular change in the colours of the trees, such an essential part of the city’s landscape, as they turn from green to gold to the delight of photographers, even though for Mélissa, who is a classical musician, autumn also means the orchestra in back in full swing rehearsing and playing for the new concert season. For Vanina, this time of year brings with it a new light which seems to broaden the horizon of the Rio de la Plata on windy days.

Piazzolla composed Otoño Porteño in 1968, and recorded it for the album Adios Nonino by Astor Piazzolla y su Quinteto released the following year. He presents autumn as altogether calmer than summer. With Otoño Porteño, the theme is played by Piazzolla‘s bandoneon without any of the occasionally unsettling rhythmic disruptions of Verano Porteño. The central movement, seeming to announce the coming of winter with its growing sense of sleepiness, moves artfully from bandoneon and piano to violin and electric guitar. There is a resistance to the slowing of the tempo in the final movement, but ultimately there is a sense of resignation at the end.

Here are two contrasting performances of Autumn in Buenos Aires. First, a version for string orchestra : the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra d’Amsterdam conducted by the violinist Liviu Prunaru. Second, a very recent version for a trio of piano, violin and cello – a frequent choice of instruments for chamber performances of Four Seasons of Buenos Aires – led by Pablo Estigarribia, a major contemporary pianist from Argentina.

Invierno Porteño – Winter in Buenos Aires

Winter in Argentina officially begins in June and finishes late September. You can forget the winter idylls of snowflakes falling gently on the windowsill from the northern hemisphere. It never snows in Buenos Aires. Well, that isn’t quite true. It did snow in the capital in July 2007 for the country’s Independence Day – but you have to go back to 1918 to find the previous occasion. People still talk about it! There is even a Wikipedia page recording the event. It is a page you will only find in Spanish.

Typically, the average winter temperature is 16°C, with much chillier starts some mornings. From her sixth floor apartment, Vanina says she’s perfectly positioned to get the most from the colourful winter sunrises.

Perhaps those chilly winter mornings explain the slow musical opening to Invierno Porteño. This first movement can’t seem to decide whether it wants to move or stay still. But humidity of the Rio de la Plata, combined with the cold winds blowing in from the south, make both music and movement vital during winter in Buenos Aires. Whether you’re a tango dancer or, like Mélissa, an orchestral musician with a full concert programme on your agenda, you need to stay constantly on the move or make sure you’re covered up if you don’t want to feel the chill coming up from the Antarctic.

Returning to Piazzolla, following that musical stretching of the first movement, it’s the piano which takes things in hand and somehow pulls all the musicians along for the ride of the central movement. The voice of the bandoneon only returns to the fore in the final movement when it guides the listener towards the resolution which has echoes of Johan Pachelbel’s celebrated Canon. This provides a gentle ending to this musical winter’s day, with a suggestion that spring is ahead.

In order to begin exploring other artists’ performances of Winter in Buenos Aires, I suggest the piano-cello version by Duo Valera. Next, for something completely different, try the arrangement for piano and the 11 saxophones of the Eastman Saxophone Project. The listener really gets a sense of the numerous changes of tone in the piece thanks to the solo passages from the various members of the saxophone family. Lastly, take a look at the five musicians in the young Astor Quintet made up of the same five instruments as Piazzolla‘s original recording – this is the way the arrangement for quintet sounds 48 years on!

It’s worth noting that Invierno Porteño was originally recorded in 1970 for the album Concierto para Quinteto at the same time as the fourth and final season, Primavera Porteña or Spring in Buenos Aires. The sudden arrival of two seasons in one recording session confirms Piazzolla‘s intention to to bring the cycle of the seasons to a close.

Primavera Porteña

Thanks to the relatively mild winters in Buenos Aires, spring can arrive quickly in late September and push all the way into December. There are numerous parks in flower, just like the streets of the city where plants and trees continue to thrive amid all the concrete. According to Vanina, this explosion of colours and fragrances is also found in the displays of flowers for sale in neighbourhood kiosks all over town. And it is this atmosphere that Piazzolla seems to create with the final piece in his Four Seasons.

There is a definite change of tone in Primavera Porteña, as the opening fugue sends a general wake-up call to all the instruments recently emerged from hibernation. Using percussive effects and bow strokes from traditional tango, Primavera Porteña is full of energy from beginning to end. This surge of energy, as the Seasons suite comes to a close, is the start of a new year in Nature, and so the cycle continues.

There is no shortage of versions of Spring in Buenos Aires. Let’s begin far from prestigiuos concert halls with a piano-bandoneon duo led by Damian Torres playing in jeans and a sweatshirt. He is a renowned musician from Córdoba, Argentina, and learnt his craft from the legendary Domingo Federico. Next, try the classical intensity of the Trio Musica Para El Mundo with a line-up of piano, violin and cello. And to finish, come full circle with Gidon Kremer & Kremerata Baltica who play the arrangement by Leonid Desyatnikov mentioned at the beginning of this article which is packed with references to Vivaldi‘s Four Seasons. Don’t miss the unusual ending to this version.

The Four Seasons suite as played by Piazzolla

Piazzolla was 44 years old when he began composing the cycle which would eventually become Cuatro Estaciones Porteñas, and aged 49 when he completed it. This was a particularly productive period for him, especially in his work with the quintet for which he constantly composed and arranged new pieces, while continuing to record and perform live regularly. Even a cursory glance at Piazzolla‘s complete discography confirms his lifelong commitment to building what is today an impressive legacy.

While The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires suite is now part of the repertoire of many a classical orchestra, there is only one recording of the suite played in full by Piazzolla himself : it is the opening to his concert at the Teatro Regina in Buenos Aires from 1970.

Along with the remarkable musicianship of this recording, it is also worth noting the order of the seasons in this performance : Invierno, Verano, Otoño and Primavera. Which is neither the order used by Vivaldi, nor the sequence of composition by Piazzolla which we have been following since the beginning!

What can we say? That there is no clearly prescribed order given by Piazzolla himself. Personally, I have a preference for the historical order of composition of the seasons because there is a certain harmony to the unfolding of the movements. If you would like to sample listening to the seasons in a more traditional order – starting with Spring and finishing with Winter – then YouTube has this compilation put together by a contributor to the platform. I prefer to keep the energy of Primavera Porteño for the ending. Feel free to differ.

In his arrangement for Eight Seasons, Leonid Desyatnikov alternates a season by Vivaldi with a season by Piazzolla. Vivaldi runs in the classic Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter sequence, while Piazzolla‘s seasons run Summer, Autumn, Winter, Spring, which was the order of composition. As this review rom the Gramophone newsletter shows, the result is a neat dovetailing of both suites, beginning and ending with Spring.

Reversing the seasons and the climate of the times

Seasons change. It is always a good idea to take a closer look at apparent disorder. The reversal of the seasons between the hemispheres may make us believe that the climate is sometimes better where we are, and sometimes better where we dream of being.

But we need to be careful when talking about climate, because climate is not just a way to talk about the time of year. It also reflects the times a society goes through when a particular moral or social climate becomes established.

For example, in the USA there is a change of President in a country following a bumpy, unpleasant camapign. Is there a chance of restoring a climate of confidence and a climate of serenity after the electoral battle? Or is there a sense that a longer lasting climate of hostility or climate of revolt as the new norm?

Argentina changed President on 10 Decempber 2023. Something new began stealing the spotlight, not just from tango : a year ended and a presidential term began with the election of a radical leader. A year later, Javier Milei is still in office.

As this article in English from El País underlines, wondering what will happen next in Argentina is now an international concern. How long will the new president last? Is he the beginning or the end of something? Does he embody the beginning of a year, with its cycle of seasons to come, or the end? Or is the new president himself simply a season in a longer cycle? And which season?

The genius and the disorder of Piazzolla‘s Four Seasons remind us that a musical cycle can be written without a clear initial project and end up being performed in the most prestigious concert halls all over the world. The acceptance of Cuatro Estaciones Porteñas as a major orchestral work is something to celebrate. It’s a reminder that the first season of a cycle can be summer, which might seem to be a revolutionary idea. But let’s keep a weather-eye open for social changes such as those currently being experienced in Argentina; changes which question the very notion of society itself. Let’s bear in mind the ripple effects of what is happening around us because, what is summer for some, is always winter for others.

Still want more?

Two playlists including all the musical references in this text are available on the Radio Tangopostale YouTube Channel : one gives you access to versions of the Seasons played by Piazzolla himself; the other offers a selection of versions of Piazzolla’s Seasons played by other musicians. This gives you a way of listening to all this magnificent music independently from this publication. Enjoy!

Acknowledgements

Many thanks to our two inhabitants of Buenos Aires for sharing their perceptions of the seasons in the city today. Vanina Steiner runs the publishing house called Contemporánea Ediciones, and edits and writes for the tango journal Tinta Roja. Mélissa Kenny is Solo Harp in the Orquesta Estable, the principal orchestra at the magnificent Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires. Thanks also to Solange Bazély from culture-tango.com for contributing the testimony from Carlos Carrizo to this article.