Accordionist Pumps Up Spreckels Audience

by Judd Snyder, Editor Community Voice , March 31, 1998

Let’s face it. The promise of a work featuring a classical music orchestra, an accordionist and a piece focused on coffee shops in Melbourne, Australia, isn’t exactly Mendelssohnian. In the parlance of music show biz, it’s a tough ticket to sell.

But in Spreckels Performing Arts Center last weekend, Nan Washburn and Orchestra Sonoma pulled off a superb bit of musicianship with the world premier of Cafes of Melbourne, written in 1997 by Janika Vandervelde. They had virtuoso accordionist Nick Ariondo as soloist, surely the Yehudi Menuhin of the accordion. The blending of the small orchestra with Ariondo produced a charming, lusty, sometimes whimsical, evocative and stimulating work of art that delighted the audience.

Then to top it off, Ariondo swept through an electrifying arrangement of Russian folk-tinged melodies called Kamarinskaya Medley, written by Gliere. Another solo piece by Niccolo Paganini (1782-1840) Perpetual Motion, capped Ariondo’s solo work. This latter work is a racehorse smasheroo written for violin and piano that only accomplished violinists attempt. It’s in the category of a Tara Lipinski triple jump. Violinists have been known to switch to tympani in sheer frustration. But Ariondo’s superb fingering handled it like a kindergarten piece, making it sound like he had 20 fingers instead of ten. He took curtain call after curtain call from the 300 or so ticket buyers, one of the bigger crowds for Orchestra Sonoma (Who said it was a tough ticket to sell?).

The program was called "Folk Fusion: Musical Motifs from Around the World." Henry Cowell’s Persian Set, written in 1957, was performed by a ten-piece combo led by Washburn and held together by mandolinist Paul Binkley and percussionist Don Baker. Cowell spent a winter in Tehran, Iran, and based his score on melodies he heard in this part of the Arab world. But the music brought in much more. Tastes of folk music from Greece, Israel, Afghanistan and Turkey could be gleaned. It flowed like baklava from the stage: moody, pulsating and expertly woven.

Canadian composer Colin McPhee’s Nocturne for Chamber Orchestra, written in 1938, featured flute soloist Leslie Chin in warm, pleasant byplay with the orchestra. It’s a comfortable work, but after Ariondo’s fireworks, Cowell and McPhee had a tough time grabbing the audience.

Washburn concluded the program with a rousing scenery-rattling When Johnny Comes Marching Home, the Irish folk tune adapted by the rebels in the Civil War. Morton Gould did the arrangement and the entire orchestra under Washburn’s vigorous baton obviously enjoyed every note.