Gidon Kremer - Astor Piazzolla: El Tango (1997)

Despite the deceptive titling format on the CD, this is a CD by Latvian violinist Gidon Kramer, not featuring the playing of Astor Piazzolla. All but four of the songs on the album are compositions by Piazzolla, but performed by Kremer and his group, along with Piazzolla's guitarists Sergio and Odair Assad. The album is definitely in tribute to the leader of the nuevo tango, as the lengthy liner notes describe in three languages. The tangos are still quite powerful, despite the obvious lack of Piazzolla in the recordings, mainly due to the prowess of the bandoneon player recruited for the cause, but also very much due to the powerful violin playing by Kremer. In all truth, if one is looking for works of nuevo tango, or Piazzolla's works specifically, one would probably do better to find recordings by Piazzolla (there are a few out there) or Yo-Yo Ma's Soul of the Tango, a tribute album to Piazzolla from the premier cello player of the time.