Siil Vous Plait-Virtuoso Accordion Miniatures [Import]

I love the accordion and I love transcriptions for the accordion, especially (but not exclusively) of 18th Century music. I fell in love with the instrument hearing, I think, Bach's Goldberg Variations played by Stefan Hussong on a Thorofon CD (unfortunately listed only as download on this website, Johann Sebastian Bach: Goldberg Variationen - Jan P. Sweelink: Fantasia but available in CD form on the European sister companies, ASIN B000027AA9).

Playing Bach and Scarlatti on the accordion is, of course, no more, no less a transcription than playing them at the piano. And I find the accordion a near-ideal instrument for playing 18th Century keyboard music: it has the digital virtuosity and the sharpness of articulation of the harpsichord or piano, but also (unlike the two others) the continuity of breadth of the string and wind instruments. Consequently it is an instrument that naturally sings, rather than having to "fake" it as with piano and harpsichord, where the sound starts decaying has soon as the string is struck or pinched. The accordion could be likened to the organ (there are a number of recordings of Bach's Goldberg's played on organ), but it doesn't have the organ's tendency to thicken and "muddy" the bass and blur the polyphonic lines. And then there's the wonderful timbral richness of the instrument, which had made it also one that has attracted many contemporary composers.

This is the third recital of Mie Miki to come my way and she is one of the top virtuosos of the instrument. The two others were a great Scarlatti recital published by Dutch Vanguard which lamentably is listed only on the European sister companies (ASIN B0000245GN, but alas even there rarely offered), and a recital of French baroque, French Baroque Music. She also plays Isang Yun's fabulous Quartet for Accordion and Strings on Isang Yun: Chamber Music - String Quartet No. 3 (1959-61) / Concertino for Accordion & String Quartet (1983) / Tapis for String Quintet (1987) / String Quartet No. 4 (1988) - Nomos Quartett.

This BIS recital here is more in the nature of a "potpourri" of short "encores", mixing transcriptions of the baroque (marvellous Daquin's Coucou - already on her Vanguard recital of French baroque pieces -, Rameau, Scarlatti), romantic (Schubert, Brahms, the Oginski Polonaise - and Miki's transcriptions of the two Schubert "Moments Musicaux" show that music written for the 19th Century's king of instruments, the piano, sounds great on the accordion as well), modern (Stravinsky's Tango - where could it sound more evident and genuine than on the accordion ? -, Ibert, Shostakovich), contemporary (Wofgang Jacobi, Glass, Zorn) and popular (Astier, Legrand, Piazzola, Confrey). You may have noticed that I've categorized John Zorn's "Road Runner" as "contemporary": truth is, with Zorn, Confrey and some of the Piazzola pieces, because of the instrument's rich timbral universe, the line can easily be blurred between pop and contemporary. Conversely, Oginski's Polonaise "Farewell to the Fatherland" and Shostakovitch's Farewell Waltz don't sound much different in character from Piazzola's Tangos. Zorn's piece is pretty wild and hugely inventive, with whiffs of the popular zipping through, but also of Bach, Beethoven and probably many others that I haven't recognized. Among the non-pops only Jacobi's Serenade was originally written for the instrument (and possibly Oginsky's Polonaise, the disc's track listing is silent about its original destination, and presumably also Zorn's Road Runner, the disc's track listing only mentions here "manuscript"), the rest is originally for harpsichord or piano, and organ in the case of Brahms - not one of his most significant pieces.

All this is very entertaining, though not as substantial as a fully-fledged Bach or Scarlatti recital. Now I wish that Miki would record a recital of 19th Century piano transcriptions: Beethoven, Schubert, Liszt, Chopin - and add Mozart and Haydn, please. Robert von Bahr (the founder and artistic mind of Bis records), are you listening?

TT 69:24. See the comments section under my review of Vivi felice! Accordion Music by Domenico Scarlatti for a discography of classical accordion.

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