A new accordion concerto

[Siegmund]

And by a young (30 years old) female composer, too: Mathilde Wantenaar. For full orchestra, not the usual "strings plus two wind players and a drum set" type of accordion mini-concerto that is more common.

I was not aware of her, or the fact this concerto had recently been commissioned, until somebody posted it to a non-accordion-specific classical music forum on reddit.

Not too hard on the ears. More of a jazzy/pop feel to most of it, rather than angry dissonant modern feel.

 

[debra]

She is a very talented Dutch composer. And with Vincent van Amsterdam as (accordion) soloist no wonder it resulted in a wonderful performance!

 

[dak]

Well, I hear Gershwin, Piazzolla, Mussorgsky. And very good orchestration skills: it's not like she has a lot of precursors or treatises to rely on with regard to this combination (the "classic" reference Hugo Hermann just caters for "accordion orchestra" and mixed groups like Arie "Malando" Maasland's orchestra worked in different scale and styles).

Very impressive craft. I am missing kind of a signature tying it together. Certainly someone to keep an eye on.