Antonio Agri

Welcome to a new edition of our podcast series Music Masters Countdown. Today we also celebrate the 100th anniversary of Astor Piazzolla’s birth with a very special interview: violinist Antonio Agri was for a long time a close collaborator of the first rejected and then celebrated tango innovator.

Antonio Agri was born on May 5, 1932 in Rosario, Entre Ríos province, and studied violin with Dermidio Guastavino. At the age of 15 he made his debut in Córdoba with a string quartet and continued playing in classical symphony orchestras in Rosario and later even at the Teatro Colón.

Listen for yourselves to what this great violinist with his extraordinary sound, who succumbed to cancer in October 1998 at the age of 66, told me.

Buy the exact transcript of the interview

Part of the interview with Antonio Agri

“Accardo told me to keep playing popular music from where I’m working, from where I live. Then, this boy, this girl told me that she wanted to devote herself to tango, so she wanted to be the best tango violinist in Europe and I told her: “With me you won’t be able to learn anything, because I don’t even know why I play. And, well, but I play”.

He played in a way like what we were doing (he plays the violin) And I tell him: “No, look, neither to that one who listened nor to me. If you want to play tango listen to Heifetz, listen to Oistrakh, listen to Isaac Stern, listen to Itzhak Perlman, listen to Menuhin and so many others. And then play tango. We tango players are rather intuitive, with some honorable exceptions who have studied the violin very well.

What they are doing in Europe, in Europe the classically trained violinists want to play our music, but of course they encounter a stumbling block; our music is written in one way and played in another. In other words, all popular music is very difficult. It’s not the same to play Strauss if you don’t play it well, that is, we can play similar, we can play tango similar, but you have to be born here, you have to have…

Look at the way Horacio Salgán plays and how do we play like that? Who explains that to you? The most difficult thing in music is not made by Salgán or by me, it is what is not written. We are all going to do the notes (he plays the violin), he won’t listen to me, will he? But our music is not like that, neither is the music (he plays the violin) all out of tune, no, that’s not how it is”.

WIKIPEDIA

Antonio Pablo Agri (May 5, 1932, Rosario – October 17, 1998) was a violinist.

He received the Konex Award three times, in 1985, 1995 and 2005, the latter post mortem. He was named Illustrious Citizen of the city of Rosario. A well-known and fanatic fan of Rosario Central, Antonio Agri made his debut in 1947 after studying violin with Dermidio Guastavino. He was a member of several popular music orchestras, including his participation in the Orquesta Típica de José Sala in the city of Rosario.

In November 1960 he performed with the charanguista Jaime Torres and the bandoneon player Rodolfo Cholo Montironi. In 1961 he created the Quinteto de Arcos de Antonio Agri, which played tango, but in a chamber music style, and was simultaneously invited by Astor Piazzolla to join his revolutionary Quinteto Nuevo Tango, together with Jaime Gosis, Oscar López Ruiz and Kicho Díaz, accompanying him in his groups for almost fifteen years. In 1974 he joined the Orquesta Sinfónica del Teatro Colónde Buenos Aires as a violinist. In 1976 he formed and conducted the “Conjunto de Arcos Antonio Agri”, made up of musicians from the Teatro Colón orchestra.

Later he formed the “Camerata Antonio Agri” performing pieces by Astor Piazzolla. In Paris, he joined the Mosalini-Agri Tango Quintet, with Juan José Mosalini (bandoneon), Osvaldo Caló (piano), Leonardo Sánchez (guitar) and Roberto Tormo (double bass). He recorded with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and with Chinese cellist Yo Yo Ma, on the remarkable album Soul of tango, and performed with guitarist Paco de Lucía, in the 90’s he was a member of the Nuevo Quinteto Real and recorded with Argentine bandoneon player Leopoldo Federico.

Video Antonio Agri – The day you love me

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