Because the elaborate packaging and minimal liner notes make this CD appear quite mysterious, the works for accordion and orchestra by Manuel Hidalgo may seem harder to appreciate than they really are. (The five-page foldout of abstract paintings by Jerry Zeniuk and the quotation from Friedrich Nietzsche are connected to Hidalgo's compositions and procedures, but they seem a bit obscure, as if put in the booklet merely to tease the uninitiated listener rather than to inform.) Hidalgo is a dedicated post-serialist who has developed his intricate language from the methods of Anton Webern; yet, more importantly, he is a shrewd post-modernist who combines the influences of Classical music and the extended effects of the avant-garde to create works that stimulate thought and occasionally provoke smiles. Nuut for accordion and orchestra (1992) is a disjointed and sparse study in pointillism, albeit of a most peculiar variety, with the accordion's squeakiest tones often set against the orchestra's crispest accents. More coherent, accessible, and immediately appealing, the Introduction and Fugue: Adaptation of the Last Movement of Beethoven's Piano Sonata, Op. 106, for accordion and orchestra (2004) is orchestrated motivically, in a manner reminiscent of Webern's famous transcription of Bach's Ricercata from the Musical Offering; yet Hidalgo's orchestration of Beethoven's "Hammerklavier" seems more like a take-off, with a more humorously chaotic result than Webern's sober, scientific arrangement produces. Gran Nada for accordion and string orchestra (1996-1997) is possibly the most difficult to follow in its scattershot ideas and disconnected gestures; yet intermittent passages seem fairly coherent, and recurrent sonorities suggest that this piece, while cryptic, is much more than a "big nothing." Accordionist
Teodoro Anzellotti and the WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln, conducted by
Peter Rundel, deliver vivid and absorbing performances of these works, and the reproduction is generally well-balanced, though at times it can be unexpectedly loud.