The Music of Astor Piazzolla Tomas Cotik´s sensibility and affinity for Nuevo Tango and the music of Astor Piazzolla is deeply ingrained from the childhood years he spent in Buenos Aires. After focusing the majority of his career on the Viennese classics, Cotik was spurred by the 20th anniversary of Astor Pizzolla´s death in 2012 to fulfill a lifelong dream of bringing the music of his childhood back to life in the form of violin and piano arrangements. His goal was to authentically recreate the language of the Nuevo Tango both in a very instrumental, virtuosic way, and at other times through arrangements of utmost simplicity that revive both the violence and sensuality of Piazzolla´s music with the highest possible instrumental performance, recording and acoustic qualities. Cotik´s two Piazzolla albums on Naxos have been met with critical acclaim, described by different critics as among the very best Piazzolla albums, “by some distance, Naxos´s best Piazzolla recordings,” as well as “exceptional… Piazzolla can be played differently than this, but probably not better” (Downbeat Magazine). Astor Piazzolla was born a hundred years ago, yet, in Cotik´s hands, his Nuevo Tango still sounds fresh and modern today.
