This is the second solo CD released on BIS by Japanese accordionist
Mie Miki, and the first for ten years (see review of last one
here).
Even more so than the first, this disc is a showcase for Miki's
amazing talent. Who the composers are almost ceases to matter,
because Miki in most cases shapes their music - already transcribed
and chopped into three minute chunks - into something else,
from another time and place, with her fantastically versatile
instrument and flawless technique.
The four Baroque works on this disc, for example - by Daquin,
Rameau, Domenico Scarlatti and Handel - are all magically transformed
into beautiful pieces of folk music by the accordion: the first
three from some romantic corner of eastern Europe, the Handel
from somewhere in rural England. On the other hand, Michal Oginski's
Polonaise, subtitled 'Farewell to the Fatherland', is a genuine,
and attractive, example of folk music made into art.
Only Schubert, in the two Moments Musicals just about retains
his personality - perhaps because of the folksong-like nature
of many of his lieder. Brahms's Es ist ein Ros' entsprungen,
from his 11 Choral Preludes for organ, sounds if anything even
more beautiful on the accordion, reminiscent almost of a nostalgic
campfire tune played by a homesick musical cowboy on a mouth
organ!
Miki's enchanted fingers even have the ability to transform
sows' ears into silk purses. For example, Michel Legrand's rather
clichéd film music, Les Parapluies de Cherbourg, is turned into
a work of surprising pathos. On the other hand, Philip Glass's
totally insipid Modern Love Waltz is beyond even her.
This CD is subtitled 'Virtuosic Miniatures', but though all
the pieces are diminutive, they are not always strictly virtuosic.
But the variations in Handel's The Harmonious Blacksmith certainly
are, and Edward Confrey's fleeting Dizzy Fingers lives up to
its name. John Zorn's Road Runner, an original work for accordion,
is outrageously virtuosic and also just plain outrageous - the
piece sounds like someone trying to murder an accordion while
it fights back by trying to belt out tunes suggested by passers-by.
Miki has probably played it as an encore many a time.
The best music on the disc comes, hardly surprisingly, from
Astor Piazzolla. Piazzolla's faults rarely lie in his compositional
abilities, but rather in his taste as an arranger of his own
music, as anyone familiar with his Nuevo Tango ensembles can
testify. Here, with Miki's unerring musicianship behind him,
the impassioned, melancholic nature of Piazzolla's imaginative
writing is released from the shackles of gaudy arrangement.
Chiquilín de Bachín is particularly haunting, and in La Bicicleta
Blanca the story of a whole life is told in less than five minutes.
As usual with BIS, sound quality is outstanding in every respect.
The CD booklet leaves rather more to be desired - no notes at
all about the composers or arrangers (if mentioned at all),
nor about the pieces Miki plays, not even about the transcriptions
themselves, which most of the works clearly are. Yet absurdly,
the sheet music publisher is often named - almost entirely irrelevant
as far as arrangements are concerned.
Nevertheless, no one should let these shortcomings serve as
an excuse for not luxuriating in Mie Miki's magnificent musicality
and the unique sonorities of the beautifully passionate instrument
at her command.
Byzantion
Track-listing
Louis-Claude DAQUIN (1694-1772)
Le Coucou (1735) [1:40]
Jean-Philippe RAMEAU (1683-1764)
Rigaudon I and II (1724) [1:16]
Domenico SCARLATTI (1685-1757)
Essercizio in C minor, K.11 [2:40]
George Frideric HANDEL (1685-1759)
The Harmonious Blacksmith [4:46]
Wolfgang JACOBI (1894-1972)
Sérénade [3:37]
Franz SCHUBERT (1797-1828)
Moment Musical in F minor, D780 no.3 [1:46]
Moment Musical in F minor, D780 no.5 [2:32]
Johannes BRAHMS (1833-1897)
Es ist ein Ros' entsprungen, op.122 no.8 [3:34]
Jacques IBERT (1890-1962)
Le Vieux Mendiant [2:22]
Le Petit âne Blanc [1:52]
Igor STRAVINSKY (1882-1971)
Tango [2:58]
Philip GLASS (b.1937)
Modern Love Waltz [1:49]
André ROQUES (b.1923) &
André ASTIER (1923-1994)
Miss Karting [2:08]
Joë ROSSI (1922-1994) &
André ASTIER (1923-1994)
Novelty Polka [2:36]
Michel LEGRAND (b.1932)
Les Parapluies de Cherbourg [4:10]
Astor PIAZZOLLA (b.1932)
S.V.P. (S’il Vous Plaît) [2:44]
Chiquilín de Bachín [3:52]
Chau Paris [2:46]
La Bicicleta Blanca [4:46]
Edward CONFREY (1895-1971)
Dizzy Fingers [1:44]
John ZORN (b.1953)
Road Runner [5:04]
Michal Kleofas OGINSKI (1765-1833)
Polonaise in A minor, 'Farewell to the Fatherland' [3:28]
Dmitri SHOSTAKOVICH (1906-1975)
Farewell Waltz [2:24]
Mie Miki (accordion) 
