Oblivion

Piazzolla wrote Oblivion in 1982 while in the United States. It was one of five of his pieces used in Marco Bellocchio's 1984 film Henry IV, which was not a success. The piece reached a wider audience in Europe later in 1984 when the Italian singer Milva performed it with French lyrics as J'oublie. She recorded it live at the Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord in Paris in September 1984, with Piazzolla on bandoneon and Pablo Ziegler on piano.

It runs about three and a half minutes, in an ABA form of 64 bars in C minor. It is built on a slow milonga rhythm, which broke with the convention that a milonga is an up-tempo piece. The original recording is scored for strings, bandoneon and bells. It was nominated for the Grammy for best instrumental composition at the 1993 awards.

Oblivion has been arranged for many instruments. A recording with Charles Dutoit and the Montreal Symphony with Daniel Binelli dates from 2000, and Yo-Yo Ma and the pianist Kathryn Stott played it at Wigmore Hall in London in 2014. Reviewing the Dutoit disc, Ian Lace described the oboe murmuring a plaintive song of yearning against luscious strings.