Frescobaldi - Gesualdo - Solbiati: Music For Accordion
Brilliant Classics
CD
$7.49$14.99Save 50%Feb 24, 2017
On this new and interesting release, the works of two Italian Renaissance masters are performed on the accordion. The accordion is slowly emancipating, shedding its “light entertainment” image and claiming its right as a serious and valuable musical instrument. Its possibilities are enormous, its sounds and sonorities as varied as a church organ. This new recording presents keyboard works by Frescobaldi and Gesualdo, works which were intended for either harpsichord or organ, and therefore may be played on any keyboard instrument. The realization on accordion is fascinating in its fusion of both the harpsichord (its tactile precision) and the organ (its sustained polyphony.) Italian Francesco Gesualdi is one of the world’s foremost accordionists. He commissioned works for his instrument with many contemporary composers, and is well connected with composers such as Marucio Kagel, Sofia Gubaidulina and Wolfgang Rihm.
Missa Criolla, by Argentine composer Ariel Ramirez (1921-2010) is a Spanish vernacular setting of Roman mass liturgy. Navidad Nuestra, composed in 1964, is subtitled"A folk drama of the nativity based on rhythms and traditions of Hispanic America"
In this album Bach's famous Goldberg Variations are newly arranged for Saxophone, Cello and Accordion. With Asya Fateyeva and Eckart Runge two renowned Berlin Classics artists get together, joined by accordionist Andreas Borregaard. Asya Fateyeva has brought the saxophone into the spotlight through her excellent recordings, new arrangements and concerts for her instrument as well as impressive media attention (including her own TV documentary on ARTE). Eckart Runge was founding member of the Artemis Quartet; he is also an acclaimed soloist and has already released several solo albums on Berlin Classics.
Stefanie Schumacher was born near Freiburg and is a member of the Ensemble Zeitsprung. She performs regularly as a guest with other contemporary ensembles such as the Ensemble Oktopus. With works that she has herself commissioned, her goal is to allow the direct emotional expression particularly associated with the accordion in folk music to influence the contemporary creation of new music for her instrument.
Breiner: Slovak Dances, Naughty and Sad / Slovak Philharmonic
Naxos
CD
$14.99$29.99Save 50%Sep 25, 2020
Peter Breiner is one of the world’s most performed composer/arrangers, with a boundless musicality that has led him to create fusions of music from a variety of genres. Drawing on traditions established by Brahms and Dvo?ák and showcasing leading folk music soloists, his Slovak Dances are an exuberant and kaleidoscopic monument rooted in Slovak musical folklore. It comprises 16 symphonic fantasias on songs that evoke varying emotions with an autobiographical element that follows Breiner’s life from his origins in Humenné and Košice to New York. Peter Brenier boasts over 200 albums released and multiple streams and downloads. Known as a conductor, composer, pianist and arranger, he has conducted, often doubling as a pianist, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the Bournemouth, Jerusalem, New Zealand, Moscow and Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestras, the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, the Slovak Philharmonic and the Orchestre National de France, to mention just a few. His compositions and arrangements have been played in concerts and broadcast worldwide, and some of the most prestigious ballet companies have used his music in numerous performances.
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REVIEW:
The basis of Breiner’s suite is native folksong and one might easily suppose, therefore, that its themes might be catchy and easily remembered. Slovak listeners, certainly, will be humming happily along as they recognise such traditional ditties as My father is but one big headache, My mother told me not to sit in the dark, I must have been crazy and Oh, mother dear, it itches (Slovakian peasant life was clearly no bed of roses).
Anyone born west of Bratislava or east of Humenné is, however, unlikely to be familiar with the original melodies and, bereft of that anchor, may well find that the dances come and go without making that much of a memorable impression. Moreover, I’d imagine that the composer’s distinctly contemporary musical palette risks disconcerting or even alienating a few tradionally-minded listeners who prefer their music delivered in an orchestration more characteristic of the late 19th century.
In spite of any such potential issues, the suite certainly offers plenty of pleasurable moments. Many of them occur, as already suggested, during the dances featuring the “domestic ethno-traditional” solo instrumentalists whose contributions deliver frequent titillation to ears unfamiliar with the sound of fujaras or jew’s harps. Thus, no. 3, the jaunty You enchanting girl, you…, is marked by effective and attractive contributions from the violinist, the accordionist and Ms Friedl’s whistles, as too is no. 9 My little whistle – ititi, ititi. Meanwhile, no. 11 I must have been crazy exhibits an engaging and sinuously oriental atmosphere that perhaps reflects the influence of intermittent Mongol and Ottoman invasions of Slovakia over the centuries. The final dance You little gate with bars is the shortest of the whole set but brings the suite to a close with an appropriate burst of vitality.
Winner of the Dame Joan Sutherland Audience Prize at the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World competition, the British mezzo-soprano Katie Bray has become known for her magnetic stage presence and gleaming, expressive tone. Katie writes: 'Youkali, It is the land of our desires, It is happiness, it is pleasure... But it is a dream, a folly, There is no Youkali! This song was my first encounter with Kurt Weill, more than twenty years ago, and that yearning, mesmerising tango has been a constant companion ever since. The sentiment behind 'Youkali' touched me deeply, and seemed to echo Weill's own search for a place of personal and artistic freedom, a German Jew forced into exile in 1933 owing to the rise of the Nazi regime. He moved around the world, and with each new country came a reinvention of himself and some more miraculous musical shape-shifting. 'Youkali' is Weill's 'Somewhere over the rainbow', an idea that resonates strongly with me, and seems painfully relevant to us all as I write this, in 2025, yet again living in a world at war. My performances of Weill's songs have always centred around 'Youkali' and Weill's search for a place to belong and to be free. I have wanted to make this album for many years, and am thrilled finally to have had the chance to do so with such a special team of collaborators and friends. It is my tribute to Kurt Weill, the chameleon, in all his glory, and a tribute to us all in our search for kindness, love, and peace.'
The familiar in a new guise – Tatjana Masurenko and the Yaruss Quartet are therefore in good company when they clothe the music of the Russian Romantics in novel acoustic garments. Using viola, soprano domra and alto domra, accordion and double bass, they play 19th century works in their own arrangements, using gut strings for all of their instruments, the domras sounding somewhat like Italian mandolins. In this guise, compositions by Rimsky-Korsakov, Musorgsky, Borodin and Glazunov seem lighter, more open and agile, their music expressing a fresh elegance with different colours, taking on a completely new character.
Piazzolla: Tango / Butt, Sonic Art Saxophone Quartet
MDG
CD
$23.99Mar 04, 2022
Astor Piazzolla's Tango Nuevo still enjoys great popularity 30 years after the composer's death. Hardly any other music is able to enthuse the classical concert audience as much as the lover of light muse, world music, or the jazz enthusiast and the specialist for contemporary music. Sonic Art Saxophone Quartet has arranged three great suites by the Argentinean grand master, which bring the rhythmic energy of the tango to the stage in highly different ways. And Valentin Butt's accordion provides the unmistakable color in the "Tango Sensations". "Estaciones Porteñas" superficially describe the Four Seasons. But they are much more than that: Buenos Aires and its people, its squares and streets, plus the atmosphere of a city where joy and suffering are often very close together. The music conveys pure emotion, inimitably captured from wild exhilaration to near silence. The almost 30 minutes of "Tango Sensations" are Piazzolla's musical legacy. The five composed states of mind were originally intended as film music and they are Piazzolla's last cyclical work. The "Suite del Diablo" was written as stage music and constantly oscillates between heaven and hell; the devil is sometimes fearsomely threatening, sometimes sugar-sweetly flattering - just as Piazzolla imagined life to be. For the tightrope walk between concert hall and club, between stage and street, the saxophone is the ideal instrumentation. No less than four of them offer a palette of expressive possibilities that blend perfectly with the accordion and which the Sonic Art Saxophone Quartet knows how to use with virtuosity. The dynamics of the performance are impressive and are unlikely to keep anyone in their seats.
Music Of Poul Ruders, Vol. 6 / Søndergard, Norwegian Radio Orchestra
Bridge Records
CD
$18.99Mar 08, 2011
RUDERS Piano Concerto No. 21. Serenade on the Shores of the Cosmic Ocean2. Bel Canto3 • 1Vassily Primakov (pn); 1Thomas Søndergard, cond; 1Norwegian RO; 2Mikko Luoma (acc); 2iO Str Qrt; 3Rune Tonsgaard Sørensen (vn) • BRIDGE 9336 (64:03)
Bridge Records, a company primarily known for its commitment to contemporary American composers like Elliott Carter, continues to promote the music of the Dane Poul Ruders (b.1949). This disc is the sixth in its Ruders series. It contains compelling performances of two recent works of considerable power.
Ruders’s music has been described as a triumph of stylistic pluralism. What that means in listener’s terms is that you can never be sure the composer is going in the direction you think he is; he retains a genuine ability to surprise. Both the larger works on this disc provide examples of this. His very recent Piano Concerto No. 2 (2009–10) begins in a relatively romantic vein, evident more in its flow than its thematic material or harmony, but as the movement evolves the piano develops an almost aggressive desperation: a determination to break the formal and harmonic boundaries with frequent attacks and note clusters. The roles are reversed in the extraordinary slow movement. This consists for the most part of a tentative, exploratory line of single notes in the piano’s treble, discreetly supported by vibraphone, harp, and a solo violin. The soft, meandering solo is confronted from time to time by orchestral onslaughts of dissonant brass, squealing piccolos, and fearsome fortissimos, which seem to have no effect on the dissociative soloist, although the first of these interruptions would probably have a visceral effect on concertgoers in a live performance! In the third and final movement, the piano takes control and ushers in a brilliant and rapid moto perpetuo that crams as many notes as possible into its four and a half minutes. Ruders uses a traditional framework but fills it with quirky episodes, unexpected colors, and—in a phrase—pushes the concerto envelope. The work is similarly formal in shape but more wide-ranging in effect than his first Piano Concerto of 1994.
Color is at the forefront of Serenade on the Shores of the Cosmic Ocean, a 2004 suite in nine continuous movements for accordion and string quartet. Here Ruders displays great imagination in his exploitation of the extremes of the accordion’s range, and by blending it into the many textural devices available to the quartet. The work is inspired by literature from a variety of sources, including Shakespeare, Darwin, and Conrad; quotations or references preface each section. It begins with a cataclysmic explosion of sound (tone clusters from the accordion predominate), which gradually morphs into a passage of warm, lyrical beauty and eventually into single, long-held high notes, rather the way a composition by Silvestrov proceeds. We move through many moods, some incorporating a degree of grotesquery in galumphing ostinatos or deep growls from the lowest reaches of the solo instrument. Then in contrast the composer will lure us into pure neoromanticism—as in the sixth movement, “Threnos,” prefaced by a quotation from Shakespeare’s The Phoenix and the Turtle: “Beauty, truth and rarity / Grace in all simplicity / Here enclosed in cinders lie.” At all times in this work, as is usual with Ruders, the listener has little idea what is coming next.
The accompanying Bel Canto (also 2004) is for solo violin, commissioned by the Carl Nielsen International Violin Competition. As the title suggests it is primarily a cantabile, although there are moments of double-stopping in minor seconds to provide the unexpected. A folk or hymn-like tune brings the lament to a quiet close.
The music on this recording is a challenge but also a pleasure to get to know. It is performed with dedication and brilliance; I can’t praise highly enough the talents of pianist Primakov, violinist Sørensen, the iO Quartet (whose personnel are violinists Christina McGann and Sarah Crocker, violist Elizabeth Weisser, and cellist Chris Gross) and the remarkable accordion virtuoso Mikko Luoma. Want List material.
Accordionist Philippe Thuriot doesn't only play the repertoire that is specifically composed for his instrument. In the past, he has transposed the music of Francois Couperin and Johann Sebastian Bach for his instrument. Scarlatti's Sonatas are baroque gems, full of sparkling melodies and Spanish swing. Philippe Thuriot improvises these enchanting sonatas together and breathes new life into them with his accordion.
Following Tom Lehrer’s decision in 2020 to release almost 100 of his songs into the public domain (for anyone to perform and adapt without permission) The Queen’s Six take up the offer with relish in this album of a cappella renditions of his “catchy and savage musical satire”. Based at Windsor Castle, the members of The Queen’s Six make up half of the Lay Clerks of St George’s Chapel, whose homes lie within the Castle walls. This rare privilege demands the highest musical standards, as they sing regularly for the Royal family at both private and state occasions. In 2018 this included the wedding of Prince Harry and Ms Meghan Markle, held in St George’s Chapel. Most significantly however, it is the familiarity of living and singing together in Chapel every day that lends this group its distinctive closeness and blend, as well as an irresistible informality and charm.
REVIEW:
Those who love the music of Thomas Lehrer cannot help but succumb to the charms of this disc, which is a thoroughly worthy successor to the recordings by these singers of more expected repertory. I note with pleasure that the disc acknowledges the assistance of (among others) the Trustees of Ascot Priory and the Dean and Canons of Windsor; and the cover illustration by Paul Taylor, depicting the composer in the guise of a pigeon poisoned with cyanide-laced peanuts before the façade of Windsor Castle, strikes just the right note.
This is an album of Baroque works, arranged for and performed on Accordion by master accordionist William Popp. The great Baroque works are magnificent in many different mediums, and this album is a great example of this. William Popp began his studies on the piano at the age of six and on the accordion at the age of eleven. He earned his bachelor's and master's degrees in performance from the University of Denver where he studied accordion with Robert Davine. He has performed and toured extensively on accordion and harpsichord with the United States Air Force Strings and has appeared with this group at such prestigious venues as The White House, the State Department, and the Kennedy Center. William Popp has also performed in concert with members of the National Symphony Orchestra, the Denver Symphony Orchestra (now the Colorado Symphony Orchestra), the 21st Century Consort, National Musical Arts, and Colorado Chamber Players. He has toured throughout the world with the USAF Strings and has appeared as a soloist in Beijing, China.
The Greek word 'kosmos' is our ethos in a nutshell. It means the world, the universe, people, order from chaos, honour and is also the name of a flower. Kosmos transcends boundaries, and connects people from all around the world. With our shared passion for music from across the globe -from Argentina to Japan-we create bridges between classical and non-classical music, and our music dances across them. All the music on this album is arranged and composed together by us for our signature combination of violin, viola and classical accordion. This recording is a one-off performance, just as each and every one of our concert performances is always novel and singular. Kosmos is a trio of award-winning, international musicians who have performed worldwide, with live broadcasts on national radio including BBC Radio and Classic FM. They regularly tour international festivals (including Poland, Italy, Spain, Greece, Scotland, Channel Islands). In 2018 acclaimed composer Errollyn Wallen wrote a Triple Concerto for Kosmos, which was premiered at the Jersey Royal Opera House and Chichester Cathedral. Their previous album released by Nimbus, Pomegranate, was highly acclaimed as 'a delight from start to finish' by Guy Rickards of Gramophone Magazine.
I love listening to music that feels as if it is being created at that very moment - and whatever I am playing, that is what I hope to access. I first realized how important this is to me as a performer during a live BBC World Service broadcast on which I was featured as a student - spontaneously deciding not to play what I had planned, but just to play and see what happened, introducing it with something like, people say that when I play at my best, it sounds like improvising - so I am going to improvise". That didn't feel like a brave or reckless step at the time, it did not even occur to me that I might dry up - or that some might think that music created live would have less merit than the compositions of the classical masters or an old folk tune. And - still - it doesn't feel like that. That's exactly what this album is." (Adam Summerhayes)
All my life I have admired, studied and performed the music of the extraordinary Argentinian composer, Astor Piazzolla (1921-1992). So, when I was offered the chance to publish a whole instrumental Piazzolla album of my own for the centenary of his birth, I decided to base my tribute solely on Piazzolla titles but… with a little something extra. I decided to design a varied and comprehensive listening experience - an hour of accordion solos, instrumental duos, and pieces that I arranged for accordion and a small ensemble as a tribute to the Master of Tango! The music is all Astor but with a touch of Bjarke here and there and maybe everywhere, in fact. There are no singers involved, but Piazzolla’s music sings, and our instruments sing, and at every corner there is melancholy, tripping feet, fast figures, and an atmosphere of Buenos Aires.” (Bjarke Mortense) All of Piazzolla’s more than 750 works are inextricably bound to an essential and unmistakable Argentinian identity. His output includes an opera, music for the theatre, film scores, concertos, chamber music and songs. He loved to startle the listener by spicing up his music with chromaticism, dissonance and abrupt surprises: yet Piazzolla paid homage to Johann Sebastian Bach on almost every page he ever wrote. In commemoration of the genius of Nuevo Tango the young Danish master of the modern accordion, Bjarke Mortensen and his friends serve up a true musical banquet that will satisfy all tastes.
For almost his entire life, Bela Bartok's music was unnoticed by the general public, this extraordinary composer created a unique cosmos of Hungarian/Southeast European folk and art music. Like Schonberg and Stravinsky, he is one of the protagonists of 20th century music. A few years after his death, his music became a bestseller and this success is once again reaching unimagined heights in our time. Accordionist Teodoro Anzellotti presents an individual selection of Bartok's masterpieces.
UNIKO features the Kronos Quartet together with the Finnish Duo - accordion adventurer Kimmo Pohjonen and sampling guru Samuli Kosminen. They create a new, multi-dimensional sound world. Commissioned by Kronos in 2003 and premiered at the Helsinki Festival in 2004, UNIKO has drawn sellout crowds. The spectacle is as visual as it is aural, and is a must-see on DVD.
In September 2026, Ekkozone proudly presents Nsambia Mpungun from Cuban composer Louis Franz Aguirre, one of the foremost Latin American composers of his generation, and featuring three of his fiercest champions and interpreters, Karolina Leedo (flutes), Mina Fred (viola), and Adam Ørvad (accordion). This intoxicating collection of premiere recordings of solo and chamber works for viola, flute, and accordion bears all the hallmarks of Aguirre's mystical and spiritual musical universe. Many of the works are inspired by the Cuban Santeria religion and it's religious texts, realised in his unique, visceral musical language. In 2011, Aguirre had the idea to bring together, in a single ensemble, these three musicians who were both able and willing to confront the particular challenges of his music, saying, 'We have shared fifteen years of close collaboration-years of exploration, dedication, and deeply rewarding musical exchange, resulting in the works on this album. My gratitude to them is both profound and enduring.' Nsambia Mpungun for amplified solo viola and singer unfolds as a work of transcendental, mystical, and ritual intensity, shifting between a wide spectrum of complex scratch sounds and a more contemplative dimension. Olakun II for viola and accordion has a profound physicality, paying tribute to the powerful and mysterious marine Orisha of the Afro-Cuban tradition. Oggún Adeolá for flute, viola, and accordion reveals Louis Aguirre's most intimate, quiet, and mystical side. A theme presented in the bass flute is followed by eighteen variations, ending with a solo accordion chorale. The continually evolving, organ-like sonority pays homage to Bach. Fantaisie-Impromptu (after The Persistence of Memory by Salvador Dalí) for accordion is Aguirre's homage to Salvador Dalí, directly inspired by the Spaniard's masterwork The Persistence of Memory. In an unusual twist for the Cuban avant-garde composer, there is also a nod to Franz Schubert: a shadow of the Fantasia in F minor for four-hand piano. In Aguirre's own words, 'It's a melted Schubert, like Dalí's clocks.' The final work, Gardens of the Beloved (Three Tropes for Solo Alto Flute/Flute), is conceived as an instrumental monodrama based on texts by the Persian poet Rumi, combining Christian and Islamic references with Aguirre's ever-present connection to Afro-Cuban and Carnatic traditions. Multi-award-winning composer, violinist, and conductor Louis Franz Aguirre was born in Cuba in 1968 and is now based in Denmark. His music has been described by critics as 'music from hell' and 'not for the faint-hearted.' His numerous works include operas, orchestral and chamber music, works for soloists, vocal music, choral, electronic, and didactic music. He has received commissions from leading international ensembles and soloists, and his works have been performed at major festivals across the world. He was Chief Conductor and Artistic Director of the Camagüey Symphony Orchestra from 1995-2002 and has appeared as a guest conductor with the National Symphony Orchestra of Havana and the Santiago de Cuba Symphony Orchestra. In addition, he taught at the Camagüey Music Conservatory and was the Artistic Director and Chairman of the Camagüey International Festival of Contemporary Music (1996-2002), which he founded.
Ludvig Norman Strings are back, this time featuring pianist Kiyo Wada and accordionist Minna Weurlander in Ylva Skog's captivating chamber music. Ylva Skog (born 1963) is inspired by many genres, such as jazz, latin, and pop music, but melts everything down to her own, special music pot. The title track, Trote, for string quartet and accordion is followed by Skog's piano quintet, piano sextet, and her two, short string quartets. Not to be missed if you are interested in enjoyable contemporary music!
Paul Hendrich's sound system is a coherent whole in which individual parameters of a musical work (such as harmony or rhythm) are ordered by analogous processes. Each composition expanded the boundaries of the system and created its next layers. The uppermost layer could not exist in this structure without all the lower levels. In this sense, every other piece of Paul Hendrich is a metaform, because it uses the musical language developed in earlier compositions. At first glance, Paul Hendrich's thick scores seem complicated. However, they are composed of simple processes. This simplicity would appear to us if we could look at this work as a multidimensional space, which we can trace each parameter separately. Performed by Ensemble Musikfabrik, this release brilliantly displays the composer's genius.
