The ''Cuatro Estaciones Porteñas'', also known as the ''Estaciones Porteñas'' or ''The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires'', are a set of four

tango Tango is a partner dance and social dance that originated in the 1880s along the Río de la Plata, the natural border between Argentina and Uruguay. The tango was born in the impoverished port areas of these countries from a combination of Arge ...

compositions written by Ástor Piazzolla, which were originally conceived and treated as different compositions rather than one suite, although Piazzolla performed them together from time to time. The pieces were scored for his quintet of violin (viola), piano, electric guitar, double bass and

bandoneón The bandoneon () or bandonion is a type of concertina particularly popular in Argentina and Uruguay. It is a typical instrument in most tango ensembles. As with other members of the concertina family, it is held between the hands, and playe ...

. By giving the adjective ''

porteño (feminine: ''Porteña'', in Spanish) is mainly used to refer to the residents of Buenos Aires, Argentina. It is also used for other port cities, such as El Puerto de Santa María, Spain; Valparaíso, Chile; Mazatlán, Veracruz, Acapulco and ...

'', referring to those born in

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires, controlled by the government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Argentina. It is located on the southwest of the Río de la Plata. Buenos Aires is classified as an Alpha− glob ...

, the

Argentine Argentines, Argentinians or Argentineans are people from Argentina. This connection may be residential, legal, historical, or cultural. For most Argentines, several (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their ...

capital city, Piazzolla gives an impression of the four seasons in Buenos Aires. The order of performance Piazzolla gave to his "Estaciones Porteñas" is: Otoño (Autumn), Invierno (Winter), Primavera (Spring), Verano (Summer). It was different from Vivaldi's order, and reflects the different seasons experienced simultaneously in the Northern and Southern hemispheres.

The Seasons

#''Verano Porteño'' (''Buenos Aires Summer'')
written in 1965, originally as incidental music for the play ' Melenita de oro' by Alberto Rodríguez Muñoz.Azzi, María Susanna, and Collier, Simon. ''Le Grand Tango: The Life and Music of Astor Piazzolla.'' (New York: Oxford University Press), 2000. see p. 90. #''Invierno Porteño'' (''Buenos Aires Winter'')
written in 1969. #''Primavera Porteña'' (''Buenos Aires Spring'')
premiered in 1969, contains counterpoint. #''Otoño Porteño'' (''Buenos Aires Autumn'')
premiered 1969. In 1996-1998, the Russian composer Leonid Desyatnikov made a new arrangement of the above four pieces with a more obvious link between Vivaldi's 'Four Seasons' and Piazzolla's, by converting each of Piazzolla's movements into three-sections, and arranges the piece for solo violin and string orchestra. In each movement, Desyatnikov includes several quotations from original Vivaldi's work. Desyatnikov reflects the inversion of the seasons between the hemisphere in his placement of the Vivaldi quotations; for example, ''Verano Porteño'' has added elements of L'inverno (Winter) of Vivaldi.

References

Compositions by Ástor Piazzolla Tangos {{classical-composition-stub