Girolamo Frescobaldi, Nikolaus Brass, Johann Jakob Froberger, Domenico Zipoli: Figures of Desire - Works for Meantone Tempered Accordion

01/21

Unexpected Encounters

[…] Accordionist Hans Maier is responsible for a no less fruitful dialogue between past and present. He brought together some masters from the early and late Baroque era with the composer Nikolaus Brass. He relies on mid-tone tuning in order to make the special harmonic appeal of old music more authentically audible and to use its special beat frequencies for new compositions. On behalf of Maier, Nikolaus Brass wrote the cycle of “Harmonies” (2014-2018) and embraced the warm sound of the mid-tone mood with audible sensitivity. In these first recordings, Maier succeeds in meticulously differentiating Brass' fluorescent sound tableaus in terms of color. The “Figures of Desire” (4), also recorded for the first time, constitute a smaller mosaic of contrasting figures in direct comparison that constantly change their contours and directions of movement. The pieces by Girolamo Frescobaldi, Johan Jacob Froberger and Domenico Zipoli, arranged for accordion, appear completely “natural” here, concentrated on structural substance, transparent counterpoint and sonorous color.

Dirk Wieschollek

08/2020

In his column “Beckmesser's Choice” Max Nyffeler wrote:

(…) In the tonal climate of the mid-tone mood, old and new become surprisingly close. In the “Hamonies I-IV”, composed in 2014 and 2018, Brass gradually explores the unusual sound, first with carefully listened chord structures, then increasingly in the linear range up to virtuoso playing figures. In his most recent work, “Figures of Desire,” which premiered in 2019, he moves naturally in the new harmonious terrain and lets his imagination run wild. The sensitive way in which he makes the instrument speak and the surprising changes in timbres and harmonics actually articulate something like a longing for an unknown distance.