Time of Life: Arrangments for Accordion & Piano

Album review

The music of Astor Piazzolla, like Bach's, retains its essence through a wide variety of arrangements. This release by the accordion-and-piano duo of Geir Draugsvoll and Mette Rasmussen, probably stretches the bonds more than most other albums of its kind, and stands out from the general run of Piazzolla arrangements on the market. Though the contents are billed as arrangements for accordion and piano, they lie a bit to the left of "arrangements" on the freedom spectrum. Draugsvoll's classical accordion sounds quite different from Piazzolla's bandoneón (also known as a German concertina), and the player makes a virtue of this, not simply transcribing Piazzolla's lines, but adding a good deal of ornamentation to them (sample the Autumn movement from Los cuatro estaciones porteñas, for a taste). You might or might not prefer the accordion's somewhat harsher tone as compared with the bandoneón, but the duo's performances are crisp. The accordion-piano combination is a rare one, but in Piazzolla there's no reason that should be true: Piazzolla's famous quintet included a piano to give its music rhythmic oomph, and Rasmussen accomplishes that while filling in a good portion of the interior lines from the Piazzolla originals. The players obviously have fun, as you can hear especially in the song adaptation Chiquilín de Bachín. This album was recorded in Denmark in 2015 and not released until 2019 on Naxos, with no explanation of the time lag. Piazzolla and accordion lovers, however, will be glad to have it.
© James Manheim /TiVo