Piazzólla: Adiós Nonino

• Piazzólla’s compositions have been arrranged by Duo Intermezzo in an innovative way

• These artists specialise in the music of Piazzólla

• They have been influenced by both classical and jazz music

Who knew that the solid, staid old Berlin Philharmonic had such a groovy group of swingers in its cello section? One of them plays the maracas during the rests in his part, others slap their instruments with abandon, and some of them even shout at appropriate moments: if this makes them sound like trainspotters letting their hair down, it's not meant to. This recording of South American and South American-inspired music is full of joy from beginning to end, and played with the kind of accuracy other ensembles only dream of. The mood ranges from sultry and sweaty (Kaiser-Lindemann's Brazilian Variations) through coolly intellectual (the Fugue from Bachianas Brasileiras No. 1) to pure sunshine (Burt Bacharach's "South American Getaway"). The arrangements are models of their kind, and the cellists respond to their challenges with bravura and passion--at times creating sounds remarkably like a bandonéon, at others producing perfect harmonics in octaves or just singing out with pure joy. Irresistibly seductive.

Rosa Antonelli evokes the memories of Latin sounds for her second recording on Albany Records. Born in Argentina, Ms. Antonelli enjoys an active and varied performance career. She has been hailed as a leading exponent of Spanish and Latin American music, which she has performed to audiences around the world in extensive tours that have taken her to Europe, Africa, Asia, Latin America and North America. Trained at the National Conservatory in Buenos Aires, she was also a participant in the International University Music Program in Santiago de Compostela where she received the Rosa Sabater Award for her interpretation of Spanish music. Her first recording on Albany Records, Esperanza-Sounds of Hope, received critical praise as did her New York debut at Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage at Carnegie Hall, where Harris Goldsmith wrote that her “…inward poetry forced me to rehear, and revalue Piazzolla’s Tangos, which she infused with an eloquence and inner communication…”