The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires

The four pieces were written separately over five years and only later gathered as a set. Verano porteño came first, in 1965, as incidental music for Alberto Rodríguez Muñoz's play Melenita de oro; Otoño porteño followed in 1969, Primavera and Invierno in 1970. Piazzolla wrote them for his quintet — bandoneón, violin, electric guitar, double bass and piano — and never fixed an order. The version most often heard in concert halls is Leonid Desyatnikov's arrangement for violin and string orchestra, made in the late 1990s for Gidon Kremer, which threads quotations from Vivaldi's seasons through the score.