Histoire du Tango: Accordion & Violin

Half of the British tango quartet Tango Siempre here performs on violin and accordion the equivalent of two short suites. The first half of the album is taken by Piazzolla's wonderful "Histoire du Tango" suite, performed not on the originally intended instruments, but ably handled nonetheless. The second half gets somewhat shakier, as the compositions are largely older pieces from the members of Tango Enrosque, Tango Siempre, and a few other British composers, retrofitted to be performed in a tango fashion. In general, the format works, but at times doesn't seem quite right. Throughout though, the musical performance is exceptional. Violinist Ros Stephen takes her instrument through the paces in a somewhat non-tango manner (sometimes sounding fully Celtic) for much of the course, but manages to hold the fort when necessary still. Accordionist Pete Rosser maintains a better tango line, but stays in the background much more often, letting the violin take the melodic lines. Not the best representative of tango, but an enjoyable album in general. ~ Adam Greenberg|