“In 1987 the Intar Hispanic American Arts Center in New York commissioned Astor Piazzolla to produce a theater production that had to include music, dance and poetry.

Piazzolla conceived one of his most beautiful and intense works, with the creation of THE ROUGH DANCER AND THE CYCLICAL NIGHT, with 14 pieces, some of them danced, interspersed with recitations of texts, based on the poem The cyclical night by Luis Borges, in which the Argentinian developed his idea of the “eternal return” of things and history, based on Vico, Hume and Nietsche.

For this reason, Piazzolla repeats some pieces in his work, drawing inspiration from this idea of the immutable return of things.

It is an authentic musical masterpiece by the Argentine composer who recorded, fortunately as we will see, on an LP with the same title.

In the 14 pieces, Piazzolla explores all the emotional temperatures of tango, reaching absolute expressive heights in songs like Leonora’s Love Theme or Tango Apasionado, which in my opinion constitute the absolute best of Piazzolla’s

creations.

The truly surprising thing is that, although Piazzolla belongs to our time and not to centuries ago so this would have been plausible, this music, as well as the track of the entire show, had been completely lost.

Piazzolla had not published them probably because it was a complete and very detailed cycle and not individual pieces; the searches I have carried out all over the world have not given positive results regarding the recovery of the scores.

To bring this extraordinary music back to life, all that remained was to “rebuild” from the precious LP the notes played by Piazzolla and his group, a long and complex job to which I dedicated myself with great passion and which allowed the rebirth, with this project, of the show created in New York.

The protagonist of the concert is the CUARTET group which recorded on a recent CD 5 pieces from Piazzolla’s work and now presents the entire cycle of 14 compositions.

Some of these pieces are danced by the two tango dancers Laura Borromeo and Roberto Orru, while the part of the recitation of Borges’ poems is held by the actress Elda Olivieri.

An absolute novelty in the musical panorama of 2024, which will fully relive the emotions linked to those magical evenings of 1987 in New York… “

Roberto Porroni

Roberto Porroni is one of the best known Italian concertists.

He has won a number of youth competitions and completed his advanced studies with Julian Bream and John Williams.

He was invited to Spain by Andrés Segovia, marking the beginning of a brilliant international performing career throughout Europe, North America nd South America, Middle East, Far East (Korea, Japan, Singapore, Vietnam), Australia and South Africa for some of the most important concert societies (the Musikverein in Vienna, La Scala in Milan, the Fairfield Hall in London, the Philharmonia in St. Petersburg, the World Bank Auditorium in Washington, the MacMillan Theatre in Toronto, the Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, the Musikhalle in Hamburg, the Gewandhaus in Leipzig, the Palacio de Queluz in Lisbon, the Ateneo in Madrid, the Chopin Academy in Warsaw, Munhwalbo Hall in Seul, Oji Hall in Tokyo, ALTI Auditorium in Kyoto, Melba Hall in Melbourne, Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires).

He has also participated in major festivals such as the Dubrovnik Summer Festival, the Berliner Festtage, the Gewandhaus Festtage, the Festival d’été in Québec City, and the Miami Festival.

He often collaborates with the Italian Radio Television, for whom he prepares programmes on guitar music. He also recorded programmes for several foreign broadcasting corporations.

He recorded the first modern performance of the previously unpublished Paganini’s manuscripts for solo guitar and edited the critical revision of these same pieces.

He had great success with his eleven tours in Russia, Australia, Canada and United States, where he performed in major cities and festivals (New York, Chicago, Washington, Houston, Austin, Detroit, Miami, Montreal, Toronto, Ottawa, Vancouver) and seven concert tours in the Far East (Japan, Korea, Singapore, Vietnam).

He teaches master classes in several countries, he has also made a number of transcriptions of piano music of the 19th century which he recorded in his third CD “Dal pianoforte alla chitarra” and which earned unanimous praise from both public and critics.

In 1996 he founded the “Ensemble Duomo”, with whom he is performing in many countries “A guitar for Vivaldi”, a particular program devoted to the works for lute, strings and harpsichord of the great Venetian Master. The CD “A guitar for Vivaldi” was released in fall 1997, followed by the CD “Gershwin, Classical Songs”, with the American violist James Creitz.

Other CDs with Ensemble Duomo, “Music at the Cinema”, with some of the most beautiful movie soundtracks he arranged for string quintet, then “Le Americhe in Musica”, with some of the most beautiful American music of the XXth century transcribed by Porroni himself, “Spanish Impressions” devoted to the XXth century Spanish music, “Music & Film” and “Tutto Morricone” with Ensemble Duomo.

He is artistic director of “I concerti della domenica” in Milan – Italy, of the “Festival tra Lago e Monti” Lecco – Italy and of the Festival “Musica e Natura” in Switzerland.

Roberto Porroni earned his degree in Music History at the Università Statale di Milano.