The concerto for accordion and orchestra is a relatively recent phenomenon in Polish music. It began in 1966 with Tadeusz Natanson's Concertino, written for the eminent Danish virtuoso accordionist Mogens Ellegaard. This album presents three works that were written between 1973 and 2010 by composers of different generations who followed different stylistic paths. Their works, however, all bear the hallmark of accessibility and are now regularly performed in concert venues.
Since the 1960s the Polish accordion concerto has enjoyed increasing popularity and in recent years no one has inspired more composers to write for the instrument than Klaudiusz Baran. The three most important Polish concertos are showcased in this album. Marcin Błażewicz’s concerto possesses a fascinating wealth of colours with spectacular passages and melodic arabesques cast in a richly communicative language. Mikołaj Majkusiak’s youthful Concerto Classico is a virtuosic synthesis of old and contemporary forms, while in 1973 Bronisław Przybylski wrote a swashbuckling concerto full of the folkloric influence of Polish dances.