Accordionist Félicien Brut celebrates Beethoven

Of course, wanting to marry Beethoven and the accordion was not necessarily straightforward.

Yet this CD entitled

turns out to be a little gem.

Félicien Brut fell neither into pure and simple transcription nor into the pastiche of the Viennese master.

To read also: Félicien Brut, Robin Hood of the accordion

The accordionist had the intelligence to ask nine composers to take inspiration from certain famous Beethoven motifs to write short pieces for a string quartet, double bass and accordion.

Here we can guess the

, there

, there again the

, or the

.

This marriage was born in the Folles jours de Nantes when its director René Martin, always in search of events, launched to the cantonade the idea of ​​linking Beethoven with an accordion.

Félicien therefore took his phone and called the composers who seemed to him the most suitable for this adventure.

He succeeded in convincing among others Fabien Waksman, professor of harmony at the Paris Conservatory, Jean-François Zygel who was at least surprised by the approach but accepted, or Thomas Enhco the troublemaker of the piano ...

Of the nine composers, seven had never written for the accordion and Félicien had to explain the specifics to them: "

". .

As soon as the first confinement was over, the performers - Félicien Brut on accordion, Édouard Macarez on double bass and the Hermès quartet - took the direction of Saint-Marcel in Berry to record this album in a village hall transformed into a studio, and under the direction of an outstanding sound engineer, Florent Ollivier.

Here is a CD to taste while waiting for each other to finally resume the path of concerts.

It just goes to show that you can make music today without ignoring the past.

New published by Mirare