The Free-Reed Review
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CD Review: Geir Draugsvoll

Works for Classical Accordion
Geir Draugsvoll, accordion
Lise-Lotte Nielsen, soprano
Soren Kaas Claeson, violin

Program:

Ejnar Kanding: Winter Darkness
Leif Kayser: Selections from Confetti:

Ivar Frounberg: A Dirge: Other Echoes Inhabit the Garden
Mogens Winkel Holm: Troglodyt
Klaus Ib Jorgensen: Cadenza
Andy Pape: ... I've never seen a Butterfly here ...

total time: 57:27
released: 1996

label: dacapo (8.224028)
Distributed by: MVD Music and Video Distribution GmbH
Oberweg 21C-Halle V
D-82008, Unterhaching
Munich, Germany

Review by Henry Doktorski:

Although Geir Draugsvoll is only thirty years old this year (born in Voss, Norway in 1967), he has already made an indelible impression on the Scandinavian classical music world since completing his studies at the Royal Danish Conservatory of Music in 1992 with Mogens Ellegard.

In a review of Draugsvoll's conservatory debut in 1992, the Danish music critic Peter Woetman wrote in the newspaper Berlingske Tidende that he is "a musician of poetry. He has a way of using total concentration to penetrate the music of silence. The music is set forth as if from a distant world, gentle and crisp, and takes on form, is brought to life, through lines constructed by way of the most subtle control over the weight and dynamics of every single note. He can make his instrument sing quietly with the music surrounded by a glow of its own. At the same time, the virtuosity of his playing is incredible; the music flows lightly across foundation pillars of rhythm and sound control, so much so that in the end everything falls assuredly into place. At times it is so brilliant that one loses one's breath."

I cannot say it any better than Woetman; Draugsvoll is a master musician. He breathes life into these difficult contemporary works and helps make these pieces more accessible to listeners.

This CD features some of the accordion works of contemporary Danish composers.

The CD booklet notes, which are informative and well written, are printed in English, German and Danish. I recommend this CD for all lovers of contemporary music.

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