Tango is a heady cocktail of delicious influences. The ingredients came together in the late 19th century in the Rio de la Plata area, where the confluence of the Uruguay and Paraná rivers form the border between Argentina and Uruguay. It was in the brothels and saloons of the impoverished port areas where dances and musical forms like the Argentine milonga, the Spanish-Cuban habanera and the Uruguayan candombe mingled to create the intoxicating dance we now know as tango.

Over the years, tango has experienced many changes and often inspired resistance to what was seen as its provocative eroticism. Nevertheless, it thrived in the neighborhood cafés of Buenos Aires and even became a worldwide phenomenon in places like Paris and New York.

Tango has evolved over the decades. Around 1980, a group of younger musicians started to develop what became known as nuevo tango or new tango. This new style embraced jazz and electronics and classical forms. One of most important and popular proponents of nuevo tango was Astor Piazzolla.

Violinist Destiny Mermagen and the Prairie Classical String Orchestra will present Piazzolla’s The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires June 1 at Old Mission United Methodist Church. Piazzolla used Antonio Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons as the template for his work, but Mermagen will use an arrangement by the Russian composer Leonid Desyatnikov that makes the connection even more explicit by quoting from Vivaldi’s masterpiece. 

“This is the coolest music,” Mermagen said. “When I was in high school, I of course knew about Vivaldi's Four Seasons, but we had this wonderful conductor from South America introduce us to The Four Seasons of Piazzolla. And wow, talk about emotions in music. This music captures every possible emotion and it's just so exciting and engaging to play.”

The Latvian violinist Gidon Kremer worked with Desyatnikov to develop the solo violin part. But Mermagen says that even though the violin has a starring role, the orchestra part is also very important.

“We are working with professionals from the Kansas City Symphony and UMKC (University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory of Music and Dance) faculty,” Mermagen said. “They are going to be paired with talented students. Most of them are seniors graduating this year.”

Piazzolla was an only child who was born in Mar del Plata, Argentina in the Buenos Aires province in 1921. He moved with his parents to Greenwich Village in 1925, where his father opened a pawn shop. Piazzolla spent his free time listening to his father’s tango records, as well as jazz and classical music, especially Bach. He began taking piano lessons with Béla Wild, who studied with Rachmaninoff. She taught him how to play Bach on the bandoneon, an instrument known as the tango accordion. Piazzolla would eventurally become a master of the bandoneon.

The great tango legend Carlos Gardel asked Piazzolla to join him on a tour in 1934, but his father would not allow it, believing his son was too young. This was fortunate for Piazzolla, as Gardel and his entire orchestra died in a plane crash in 1935.

Piazzolla and his family returned to Argentina in 1936, where he continued his tango journey. After playing with many tango orchestras, he started taking lessons with the Argentine composer Alberto Ginastera. His musical horizons were immensely broadened by his contact with classical composers like Stravinsky, Bartók and Ravel. Piazzolla would eventually abandon tango and the bandoneon and studied with Nadia Boulanger in Paris. Afterwards, he dedicated himself to composing.

When he returned to Argentina, Piazzolla resumed playing tango, but this time his playing was informed by his immensely rich classical education. He became part of the vanguard in the nuevo tango movement. Between 1965 and 1969, he composed Cuatro Estaciones Porteñas or The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires.

In 1996, Desyatnikov started to make an arrangement of The Four Seasons that linked the work much more intimately to Vivaldi’s masterpiece. As with Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, Desyatnikov divided each of Piazzolla’s movements into three sections. He also directly quoted Vivaldi in his arrangement.

“What's funny is when it's winter in Buenos Aires, it's summer here,” Mermagen said. “So Desyatnikov snuck the opposite season from Vivaldi into Piazzolla's version. It's so humorous. People will definitely like it. It's almost like programmatic music, but the music doesn't need a description.”

The Prairie Classical String Orchestra is made up of 16 musicians, including Kansas City Symphony players and faculty from the UMKC Conservatory. As with all of Mermagen’s concerts, she will also have some of her students performing alongside the pros. She sees her concerts as vital opportunities for her students to really understand what it’s like to be a professional musician.

“It’s just so wonderful to see the students blossom,” she said. “This is not the usual classical music that we play. It really challenges the student to count in different rhythms and experience different sounds. It's still tonal and melodic and obviously, since it has some Vivaldi Four Seasons in it, there's still the Baroque and classical elements. It’s really unique and so fun. I'm so excited.”

Astor Piazzolla

Leonid Desyatnikov

Mermagen is a busy woman. In addition to her concertizing and educational activities, she also has a YouTube channel, Destiny’s Musings, and is the host of Kansas Public Radio’s Evening Classical and KPR’s newest show, Classics by Request, heard every Saturday from 1 to 4 p.m. But right now her focus is on mastering Piazzolla’s intricate and demanding music.

“There are some very wild violin cadenzas that keep me up at night,” Mermagen said. “But I love a challenge. There's also a beautiful cello solo moment and also the string section, the principals get solos too. Sometimes with student concerts, it's all about just pushing them to play through a ton of pieces of music to say that they've done it. But we really try to go for the quality of something excellent, so that the students can actually play on a professional level. We have a generous sponsor for this concert, so the concert's free and we’re putting on a reception afterwards. Our motto is that music is the best medicine, and we're trying to heal the community.

antonio vivaldi

6 p.m. June 1. Old Mission United Methodist Church, 5519 State Park Road. The concert is free, but an RSVP is required. For an RSVP and more information, prairieclassical.org.