Pizzicato, April, 2024

Grandiose Piazzolla recordings with Tomás Cotik

It was clear that the Argentinian-born Cotik has Piazzolla’s music in his blood. It was to be expected that he would be able to exploit everything that these arrangements require technically. But more importantly, he knew how to capture the spirit of the music, from subtle sensuality and longing to fierce passion and supreme virtuosity.

Whether in the energetic Chin Chin, the nostalgically lyrical Soledad, the swinging, dancing Zita, or the varied moods of Las cuatro estaciones porteñas, Cotik captures the entire spectrum of Piazzolla’s music. And when the album ends with an incredibly dramatic Fugata, one only has to listen to Isabelle van Keulen’s lovely walk in this piece to realize the unbridled temperament with which Tomás Cotik and the exploding musicians of the Martingale Ensemble play.

The comparison of the 4 Seasons with the legendary recording of the Kremerata Baltica and Gidon Kremer is not quite so blatant, but in the end I still prefer the Cotik recording because of its rhythm and its colors, which are more genuine, richer and more finely differentiated than what I hear in the Kremer recording.