Astor Piazzolla and his famous Liber tango, who wouldn't know and love him... Beautiful music, full of life, as well as the entire work of this Argentine genius. As a modest tribute to this composer and his music, in 1998 I composed variations on the theme of this piece and called them Astoriana.   First for the accordion, but the musicians requested other versions. One of them is this arrangement for an orchestra of woodwind instruments created by me. At that time, it existed at the Prague Conservatory, founded by Prof. Jiří Stárek.

These are authorial variations, not imitations of Piazzolla's style. Nevertheless, I considered it necessary not to stray too far from the nature of the topic. The variations begin with a double introduction of the theme (first its harmonic and metrical structures, and then the melodic theme itself), followed by 10 variations flowing attaca. At the tectonic climax, the theme is again introduced twice, but in a slightly different stylization than at the beginning of the composition. A short code closes the piece.