Review: Tabakova Accordion Concerto at the Liverpool Philharmonic ****1/2

While this Thursday night concert on a chill January evening was officially billed as 'Rachmaninov Symphony No.3', it was really all about the accordion with the UK premiere of a new concerto from the ebullient Bulgarian-British composer Dobrinka Tabakova.

And who better to perform it than Ksenija Sidorova, whose artistry with what is essentially a portable organ (albeit a backbreakingly heavy one at 20kg/three-and-a-half stone in old money) is unparalleled.

If you’ve ever tried to pat your head and rub your tummy at the same time, you’ll know how difficult attempting two simultaneous, but different activities can be. Add in changing the accordion’s tone and timbre with your chin (there are switches on top of Sidorova’s instrument) and it’s a masterclass in musical multi-tasking.

Happily, the Latvian superstar accordionist is a multi-tasker extraordinaire. Not only that, but she wears her peerless talent and wonderful virtuosity lightly.

A five-way co-commission by Liverpool, the Stuttgart Phil and three others, and composed for Sidorova, the concerto received its world premiere in Stuttgart last May. Eight months on, it proved more than worth the wait.

The work’s full title is Sublime Dreams of Living Machines, which has echoes of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? But unlike Philip K Dick’s post-apocalyptic tale, Tabakova only hints at the future that awaits in a work she describes as being about humanity grappling with technology, about machines and humans. And which wonders, who is going to win?

If the future is potentially dystopian, the present in Tabakova’s thrillingly propulsive piece – realised in a mesmerising performance by Sidorova and the Liverpool Phil under Andris Poga’s intelligent baton – is less cut and dried.

The opening, Blazing Ground, is an earthy, potent aural assault, Sidorova’s accordion the strange, shimmering engine room for layers of percussion, piano and strings.

The soloist herself describes the concerto as ‘a magnificent piece full of accordion tricks’. And indeed it has so many beguiling tones and textures and interesting techniques.

But it also has an emotional core, and its central movement, titled Whispered Memory, was nothing short of exquisite here, Sidorova using her instrument almost like a vibraphone in an echoed duel with percussion, leading to an evocative and meditative melody with historic folk roots that insinuated itself beneath the skin. Mention also too for the brilliant pianissimo mellowness of the Phil’s brass section.

The finale, Ancient Patterns, opened with accordion and Ian Buckle on piano whipping up persuasive rhythm which was taken up by the wind section and then surged through the rest of the orchestra, reaching an exhilarating crescendo with an exuberant Sidorova cresting the wave.

An equally exhilarated Tabakova joined Sidorova, Poga and orchestra on stage for a sustained and well-deserved ovation, with the applause persuading the accordionist – long a Liverpool favourite – into an encore.

In a clever piece of programming, Tabakova’s work was complemented by Prokofiev’s cheery, crazy Suite The Love of Three Oranges which opened the concert and which proved full of delightful little moments and melodies among its brassy, percussive swirl, infernal fortissimo, bucolic themes and some rather abrupt finishes to a couple of its mini movements.

After the interval came the Rachmaninov of the concert’s official title, in a finely balanced reading by Poga who wrought high drama in the lento first movement and drew a sumptuous, golden sound from the Phil in the allegro finale.

Just as with the Tabakova concerto before the interval however, it was perhaps the central adagio which particularly shone, delivering the tenderest of melodies with perfect phrasing and dynamics and with Poga encouraging and shaping sublimely elegant performances from every section on stage.

Top: Ksenija Sidorova, Dobrinka Tabakova and Andris Poga with the RLPO. Photo courtesy of Sandra Parr.