e was one of the great violinists in the history of tango even though his career in our city music was not so long and known in comparison with other musicians of his generation.

Julio Nudler says in his book Tango judío, del ghetto a la milonga that his real first name was Samy and was distorted by the employee of the Office of the Registrar-General that thought it was Sanny. These mistakes, as we generally know, were common at that time because of the difficult spelling of the names whether they were Jewish, Russian, Turkish, Syrian, Lebanese or of any other origin.

Nor the Samuel that some people applied to him did exist. In his appearances, interviews, photos of performances, ads, etc. he always appeared as Samy Friedenthal.

His father encouraged him to study violin and his brother Soly to study piano. Furthermore, he looked for a job in Max Glücksmann for his son. The latter impresario was a pioneer, together with others, in the incipient Argentine movie industry and he even owned a large number of movie theaters in Argentina and in South America.

In connection with tango, besides recording many tangos with the Odeon company in which he was the manager he was also the creator of numerous tango contests that were held between 1924 and 1930 and which were very popular.

Samy began to play violin, like many other musicians, in the movie theaters where silent movies were exhibited like the Palais Bleu and Grand Palais, located on Santa Fe Street in the area that today we call Barrio Norte.

Some times he appeared as substitute player in the orchestras led by Julio De Caro and by Juan Bautista Guido but later he became staff member of the violin section in the aggregation fronted by José María Rizzuti in 1930. He had been acquainted with the latter in the Guido’s orchestra. The members were: Rizzuti (piano); José and Francisco Della Rocca (bandoneons), José Cacopardo and Friedenthal (violins) and Humberto Constanzo (doublebass).

In 1932 he joined the enhanced orchestra led by De Caro which then played concerts at the Cine Broadway and on Radio Splendid. The violin players included in this De Caro’s aggregation were: Vicente Tagliacozzo, Friedenthal, José Nieso, Samuel Reznik and the orchestra leader.

Thereafter he was member of the outfit that, on a long tour of Latin America, accompanied the singer Agustín Irusta after the latter split with the famous Trío Argentino. The trip, sponsored by the firm that manufactured the product known as Toddy, included Chile, Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Panama and New York.

In the city well-known for its skyscrapers they appeared at the Teatro Latino and at the Broadway, for the Holiday of the Americas, and also at the Hispanic Section of the University of New York. They played under the conduction of Terig Tucci who had been collaborator with Carlos Gardel.

The musicians that accompanied Irusta were: Daniel López Barreto (piano), Friedenthal (violin) and Héctor Presas «Cachito» (bandoneon).

In 1934, due to some misundertanding with De Caro, Pedro Laurenz quit the orchestra together with Armando Blasco, Nieso and Vicente Sciarretta and he put together his own group, a septet that was known as Orquesta Típica Laurenz.

Its members were: the leader, Armando and Alejandro Blasco (bandoneons), Osvaldo Pugliese (piano), José Nieso (lead violin, later replaced by Alfredo Gobbi), Friedenthal (second violin) and Sciarretta (double bass).

The bandoneon duo by Laurenz and Blasco replaced —in a new way of playing bandoneon— the famous duet by Maffia and Laurenz.

Their debut was at the Café Los 36 Billares, located on 900 Corrientes Street when it was narrow. It was on April 15, 1934. Despite the proficiency of all its members this outfit did not catch the interest of the record producers who regarded this orchestra as «not commercial» and, consequently, they were unable to commit to record any piece of their anthological repertoire.

We think that the lack of jobs for tango musicians that took place with the advent of sound movies was a big influence for people in changing temporarily their liking for tango.

Dr. Luis Adolfo Sierra wrote in his Historia de la orquesta típica: «Like Pedro Maffia, Pedro Laurenz imposed a personal way of playing that his orchestra translated with an admirable fidelity... incorporating to tango an orchestra with brilliant sonority and original effects of attractive harmonic construction and, naturally, influenced by a marked tinge of Decarean inspiration».

Friedenthal kept a close frienship with Laurenz. Taking aside his musical capabilities, he was also a great billiards player.

After 1946 he was retired for several years. When he resumed his activity he became concert master of the Chamber Orchestra of San Juan, a province where he had settled with his family. He also played in the tango orchestra of the bandoneon player Salvador Catanzaro.

On his comeback to Buenos Aires, in the 60s, he was concert master violinist in the Symphony Orchestra of Morón.

He composed the tangos “Amor de ayer”, with words by Osvaldo Sosa Cordero; “No comprendo”, with Luis Coraggio and “Hay que entrar”, with words by Pacho Lucero.

He as well wrote some tangos that were unpublished like “Sin palabras [b]”, “Diploma de honor”, “Esperanza”, “Oración [b]” and the zamba “Agüita de la vertiente”. He wrote the music and the words of the ones latterly mentioned.

Bibliography:
Communication by the Friedenthal’s family to the author, Buenos Aires, 2007.
Judkowski, José. El tango, una historia con judíos. Fundación IWO, Buenos Ares, 1998.
Nudler, Julio. Tango Judío, del ghetto a la milonga. Editorial Sudamericana, Buenos Aires, 1998.
Ferrer, Horacio. El libro del tango. Editorial Tersol, 3 volumes, Barcelona, 1980.
Sierra, Luis Adolfo. Historia de la orquesta típica. Evolución instrumental del tango. 2nd. Edition, Corregidor, Buenos Aires, 1985.