Tangos with a German taste.
It was love at first ear. Peter Reil was just a boy when he listened to a bandoneon and he knew that it was made for
him: at that moment he loved Sex Pistols and it was 1978 in Heilbronn, in the South of Germany. Today, the German
musician is a Leopoldo Federico fanatic and he cannot think of living without the sounds of Buenos Aires; he is
the most well-known bandoneon player in Germany and the soul of Sabor a Tango, the typical German orchestra
that is playing in the Buenos Aires-Berlin Cultural Festival due next September, 2n. The group of ten German
musicians expects to gather the best of one hundred years of tango, this time with the valuable company of Raúl
Garello, “imported” for the occasion. “It is a crazy idea, but we like it”, says Reil, a good adopted son of Buenos
Aires, while sitting at a café in Berlin in summer.
It all started in 2000, when Reil and the pianist Robert Schmidt were devising a show which included all tango lovers
in Berlin. The plan did not become a reality but an orchestra was set up with all the people who had accepted: four
bandoneones, four violins, a piano and a double bass. “We must copy in order to learn”, states Reil without false
modesty and he continues “almost all our repertoire comes from recordings”.
Sabor a Tango is the only typical German orchestra and performs live between eight and ten times, and they have a
loyal audience, especially in Berlin, the self-called European capital of tango.
Emperor William II banned this type of music in 1913 as being immoral, but he could not prevent it from spreading
massively during the crazy 1920s. Forgotten in Nazi-Germany, the Second World War and the post-war periods,
this rhythm of the River Plate reemerged in the 1980s and it has not stopped growing since the fall of the Wall. One
can go to a milonga in Berlin every day of the week. You can have breakfast at a fashionable café while listening
to tango, from the most typical two-four time to the “electronic tango”, a combination of traditional sounds with
a base of house or trance. There are at least 30 tango bands performing at bars – although not always of the best
quality. There are even top discos, such as B-flat with a weekly tango night. “However, people here are confused.
They believe that tango is a romantic type of music to have tea to”, Peter Reil argues. In Germany, the word “tango”
is still linked to the cliché of erotic music, to the passion between men and women, and more to the dance than to
the music.
The event of the Buenos Aires- Berlin Cultural Festival will take place at the site of the local government, known
as Rotes Rathaus (Red Town Hall) because of the color of its bricks. There will be a first part performed by Garello
and a second one with themes of the orchestra, aiming at encouraging the large audience of Berlin to dance, an
audience who, like Reil, have a crush on tango.
Araceli Viceconte – Clarín 07.10.04
It was love at first ear. Peter Reil was just a boy when he listened to a bandoneon and he knew that it was made for
him: at that moment he loved Sex Pistols and it was 1978 in Heilbronn, in the South of Germany. Today, the German
musician is a Leopoldo Federico fanatic and he cannot think of living without the sounds of Buenos Aires; he is
the most well-known bandoneon player in Germany and the soul of Sabor a Tango, the typical German orchestra
that is playing in the Buenos Aires-Berlin Cultural Festival due next September, 2n. The group of ten German
musicians expects to gather the best of one hundred years of tango, this time with the valuable company of Raúl
Garello, “imported” for the occasion. “It is a crazy idea, but we like it”, says Reil, a good adopted son of Buenos
Aires, while sitting at a café in Berlin in summer.
It all started in 2000, when Reil and the pianist Robert Schmidt were devising a show which included all tango lovers
in Berlin. The plan did not become a reality but an orchestra was set up with all the people who had accepted: four
bandoneones, four violins, a piano and a double bass. “We must copy in order to learn”, states Reil without false
modesty and he continues “almost all our repertoire comes from recordings”.
Sabor a Tango is the only typical German orchestra and performs live between eight and ten times, and they have a
loyal audience, especially in Berlin, the self-called European capital of tango.
Emperor William II banned this type of music in 1913 as being immoral, but he could not prevent it from spreading
massively during the crazy 1920s. Forgotten in Nazi-Germany, the Second World War and the post-war periods,
this rhythm of the River Plate reemerged in the 1980s and it has not stopped growing since the fall of the Wall. One
can go to a milonga in Berlin every day of the week. You can have breakfast at a fashionable café while listening
to tango, from the most typical two-four time to the “electronic tango”, a combination of traditional sounds with
a base of house or trance. There are at least 30 tango bands performing at bars – although not always of the best
quality. There are even top discos, such as B-flat with a weekly tango night. “However, people here are confused.
They believe that tango is a romantic type of music to have tea to”, Peter Reil argues. In Germany, the word “tango”
is still linked to the cliché of erotic music, to the passion between men and women, and more to the dance than to
the music.
The event of the Buenos Aires- Berlin Cultural Festival will take place at the site of the local government, known
as Rotes Rathaus (Red Town Hall) because of the color of its bricks. There will be a first part performed by Garello
and a second one with themes of the orchestra, aiming at encouraging the large audience of Berlin to dance, an
audience who, like Reil, have a crush on tango.
Araceli Viceconte – Clarín 07.10.04
