Finally playing Piazzolla's "Oblivion" on flute

Almost a year ago, I almost played Piazzolla’s tango “Oblivion” on flute with piano accompaniment by Henry at a party but I ended up playing melodica instead of flute.

Having the opportunity to play with Henry again, this time I played it on flute, finally! I had found an oboe and piano arrangement which we used, sight reading it. I think the arranger filled in his own ornamentation into the melodic line. I only used that as a guide. Personally, when I play “Oblivion”, I improvise my own embellishments on the spot, depending on my mood. I play it very freely: it cries out for self-expression.

(Update of 2014-10-23) Some other performances of “Oblivion”

In my blog post of 2012, I embedded a lot of my favorite performances I found on YouTube of “Oblivion”. Here are some more.

Flute/cello/piano trio (Mathilde Caldérini, Zoé Karlikow, Aurèle Marthan)

Very beautiful performance, great unity and balance and expression from all three musicians.

7 flute choir

An unusual 7-flute arrangement, with all parts played by the same person, Manja Thessin! A bonus is that the video is a beautiful demonstration of tango dancing by David and Kim Benitez of Tango Movement

J’oublie (voice), Elena-Lydia Stamellou

A lovely, pure voice with piano accompaniment.

Piano, improvisational, Gila Goldstein

A gorgeous, floating performance, very free, with lovely touches in filling in inner voices and adding drama effectively through contrast, detail, and improvisation.

Guitar duo, Katrin Klingeberg and Sebastián Montes

What a partnership! A passionate performance with contrasting moods, immense focus, really captures the spirit of the piece.

Guitar solo, Ryuji Kunimatsu

Wow, one guy on guitar, all by himself, in his own arrangement, beautifully expressive.

Melodica and piano, one musician simultaneously! Haim Shapira

A novelty item, definitely. There are compromises from trying to arrange to play both melodica and piano at the same time, but this is a fascinating free arrangement.

Piano solo arrangement, Viktoriya Yermolyeva

A very passionate performance on piano by the arranger herself.

Digital piano solo (Roland FP4),

Really quite good, based on Yermolyeva’s arrangement.

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