Jump to content

Classical Music


Recommended Posts

I recently read the novel by John Hersey entitled, The Wall. The protaginist was a musician among other things and came to playing the concertina when forced underground in the Warsaw Ghetto. I would like to hear some classical music played on the concertina. If anyone knows of any, please send me an email with details.

Thanks,

JM Mucklin

jmmucklin@yahoo.com

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I recently read the novel by John Hersey entitled, The Wall. The protaginist was a musician among other things and came to playing the concertina when forced underground in the Warsaw Ghetto. I would like to hear some classical music played on the concertina.

Thanks for the reminder about The Wall. I read that book very early in my concertina career, and I wondered how he got everything that was described out of a little English concertina. I later realized that he didn't. The concertina the author had in mind was probably of the Chemnitzer or bandoneon family. Even later, I realized that one could do more of that on the English than I originally thought. But here are some references you might try to track down (which I'm posting here, rather than sending an email, because I'm sure others would also be interested):

 

The CD On Cheviot Hills (White Meadow Records, WMR 2002CD) is not Bach or Mozart, but a suite in the classical style, composed by Alistair Anderson for English concertina and string quartet, with Alistair himself playing the concertina part.

 

I have a CD of The New Mexboroough English Concertina Quartet, which I believe is a copy of an earlier LP. This includes arrangements of various marches and what I believe are old operatic excerpts (I'm not an expert on opera), including one labelled "Il Flauto Magico - Mozart".

 

Douglas Rogers has recorded several tracks of Gíulio Regondi's Victorian-era classical repertoire on The Great Regondi, vols. 1 & 2, especially volume 2.

 

Something seems to have shuffled my CDs and casettes, so I'm having difficulty locating other items for exact information, which are mainly individual tracks, but...

 

Mike Agranoff has recorded the Allegro from Bach's double violin concerto in Dm, with double-tracked English concertina and cello. I believe he has also recorded the Gavotte & Rondo from Bach's Partita No. 3 in E on solo English.

 

LPS and casettes: You might look for stuff by Lea Nicholson (The Concertina Record or Horsemusic?), Alistair Anderson (I recall at least one classical piece arranged for multiple concertinas), or Dave Townsend (e.g., Concertina Landscape).

 

Out of print: Bertram Levy's LP Sageflower Suite has some beautiful music on the anglo, which he composed and played as the background for a ballet.

 

But getting back to the sort of concertina -- and music -- that was more probably played by the protagonist in The Wall, I have a casette of Kalus Gutjahr playing classical pieces on badoneon, very rich and beautiful, some sounding like an organ. (I got that casette from Klaus in 1982, a time when he was concentrating on learning tangos.)

 

....... Happy hunting! :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...