Talented Classical Players

[simonking]

Its amazing - once you start looking, there are so many good almost unknown players out there. Where are they hiding now!? Heres just a few Bach-related things I found browsing earlier:

Prelude and Fugue D minor


P & F in C minor (a few mistakes but way way better than I could manage)


And this absolutely fantastic guy who appears to have recorded loads of really hard stuff at home on the accordion (including the whole Goldberg Variations), seemingly just for the hell of it!

(Also has done some Scarlatti, Chopin and even Beethoven)

 

[simonking]

A couple more I shouldnt forget about:

Prelude and Fugue in C# major:


Same piece, another excellent player:


And this is simply stupendous - the famous Toccata and Fugue (BWV565), well worth watching if you havent seen it (or even if you have). Turn it up loud!

 

[Pietro]

Good clips Simon. There are so many fantastic accordionists out there, it really makes you feel humble when you hear them. One of my favorites is Paul Chamberlain from Edinburgh who travels the country giving recitals, you can check him out on youtube. I also hear the great Oleg Sharov regularly when he comes to play with us up here in Yorkshire. There are many more of course.

Pete

 

[simonking]

I saw Paul Chamberlain in Bristol a few months ago playing to a sadly very small but extremely appreciative audience (it was a friday lunchtime so maybe that didn't help). He was a really superb player and a great chap - I think everyone there bought at least one of his CDs. He said he started on piano accordion and only switched to playing classical stuff on a free bass B system chromatic about a decade ago which I find amazing.

 

[Buttons]

You speak well of Paul Chamberlain. He also makes a very good teacher. Scottish, Tango, Chamber, Ceilidh, and more are his playing abilities. A decent guy with a fresh outlook. Does get on National radio occasionally.
His web site is... http://www.theaccordionist.com

Best wishes to all.

 

[Deleted member 48]

Thank you for the You Tube clips with classical music on accordion. They are great to watch and listen to.

But I am not surprised at all by the fluent performances. These accordionists are probably no more talented than the average person.
The reason why they play so well is , they had formal training for years in good music schools by accordion teachers with excellent conservatory degrees.

If you start young, under the guidance of a good accordion teacher in a music school, and if you are motivated, you can get these beautiful results.
It is just the result of a methodical and good didactical approach (good teachers, methods, fingerings and off course motivation and rehearsal).

It is a result of the accordion being accepted in most higher music conservatories around the world. The same standards as with organ, piano, violin, cello, classical guitar, etc. are a must for the accordion.

So I am not surprised at all.

 

[Deleted member 48]

Nowadays we can find hundreds or thousands of YT videos showing young accordionists playing difficult classical pieces in a relaxed manner

Mozart Variations
Ah vous dirais-je maman

or this one:

Johann Sebastian Bach - (accordion) Prelude and Fugue No. 5 in D major, BWV 850 DWK

I remember years ago when attending recitals by Russian bayanists, some people in the audience thought these Russian accordion players were superhuman supertalents.
But thats not the case, these Russian or Eastern European players are no superhumans or no supertalents.
They just have a better accordion education system in their countries and this system started many decades ago in these countries.

If the same systems would be in place in the UK and USA, I promise you within some years, you will be seeing the same results with UK and USA accordion players.
Paul Chamberlain is a good example of an excellent accordion player.

 

[Buttons]

I think it was someone on here who said the quote; "The difference between a professional player and an amateur is the professional practices more".
I liked that and thought it very funny. If only......it was that simple. Best wishes to all.

 

[Deleted member 48]

Not so sure, I've known amateurs that play many hours a day trying to master the pieces all on their own.
If you don't have a good teacher next too you, who can at the spot immediately correct or adjust wrong fingerings, you can drag those bad playing habits for years with you.

I have followed accordion and classical guitar at public music school, and if I didn't have the live support of those teachers, I'm pretty shure my progress would be very poor, if any progress at all.

 

[Buttons]

Yes you are correct. I think the saying is tough in cheek. A good teacher is invaluable as in most things. I am very fortunate to have in my estimation a good one that suits me. I would never have got very far without the guidance. I probably would never have got started. I still have very long way to go and am indepbted to mine.

 

[maugein96]

Whilst classical is not my style I would second those contributors who advise against going it alone. I wasted years playing just about everything I did with some degree of difficulty.

Whilst I don't necessary agree that you absolutely need a teacher, you need to be able to interact with fellow players at the very least, so that you can improve your technique. Put a dozen novice players in total isolation from each other, then give them each an accordion and the same tutor book. In a few years I'll guarantee that between them they'll have have mastered the syllabus, but only one or two will have worked it all out for themselves. The remainder of the players will have mastered certain bits, but will not have been able to manage everything the book was attempting to teach them. Hopefully, by exchanging ideas, the whole dozen will manage learn most of their "missing bits" from each other, and almost all of them will eventually be able to do what the original one or two "naturals" had managed by themselves. A few will struggle regardless, and that is just a fact of life.

The truth is that most people worldwide are unable to play a musical instrument at all, so a dozen random individuals would not work.

I'm glad that, even though self taught, I have managed to play to an acceptable standard - not great, but acceptable.

The major problem these days is finding 12 accordionists!

 

[Glenn]

I can appreciate that phrase about professionals practicing more. My teacher says I play a piece whilst she studies a piece. I can see the difference. She makes part of her living performing whilst I play to enjoy myself. Performance is secondary.

 

[Deleted member 48]

Regular practicing is always a good advice. The advice we had in music school was: at least one half hour of practice every day. This is the advice for most music instruments.
I usually followed this diet, I practiced 6 days a week, from 30' up to 2 hours. Sometimes skipping a day.

The teachers said long hour practices are unneccesary. 4, 6 or 8 hour practice sessions are really not necessary at all to make progress at music school.
Only conservatory students need those intensive daily study to make advanced progress.

What had helped me most was the C-system CBA teacher I started with right from the beginning, he paid a lot of attention to correct fingering and other details, right from the start
And this focus on fingering went on for the whole 10 years of my accordion study in music school.

Because they knew if you get it wrong from the start, your sensori-motori system, hand/finger muscle memory, will soon suck up all the wrong habits. And it can take a very long time to relearn the correct fingering habits.
Even when it's easy to understand you have to use other fingering for left and right hand, it is a bit of a personal struggle to get those bad habits out of your muscular/memory system.

With the accordion I was lucky to get it right from the start, thanks to the accordion teachers.

With the classical guitar, it was another story. I had been "playing" the classical guitar on my own for some years (using a mixture of staff notation and tablature), before going to music school and take classical guitar lessons.
I could play a little bit of guitar on my own, but when under guidance of a guitar teacher after some months my playing improved significantly (pivot fingers, better fingering, I could bind the polyphonic passages legato, nail care and filing)

Taking music lessons with a music school teacher is like going back to school, you have to do your homework on a daily / weekly basis. And you get an honest and live direct feedback from the teacher.
Needless to say I did not have the same discipline when "studying" the classical guitar completely on my own. I only tried to play pieces I liked, and skipped the études/studies/difficult passages
Sounds familiar?

 

[joe]

I keep coming back to this one: (Dieu parmi nous (God Among Us) from Messiaens La Nativité du Seigneur). Just amazing.

 

[Ganza]

James Crabb, born in Scotland and studied classical accordion in Denmark, and now living in Australia (lucky for us!) Is a wonderful classical Csystem player, who i had the pleasure of seeing perform a few months ago in the stately Governor's House, the former residence of the NSW Governor, now open to the public. A beautiful building with a big verandah that looks out onto a garden over Sydney Harbour. James Crabb was playing in a ballroom with a great big mural and a little gallery above us.

We were all sitting on chairs on the floor and he was on a slightly raised stage with a huge accordion, I think a Pigini Mythos. Anyway, he was full of witty banter and demonstrated the converter bass system. He played some classical pieces and some tangos, but the best was the incredible "De Profundis".

 

[Glenn]

I keep coming back to this one: (Dieu parmi nous (God Among Us) from Messiaens La Nativité du Seigneur). Just amazing.

Here is another version. Quite exception bellows control.