Concorde/Dermot Dunne (accordion)

Twilight, Op 113 (1998) - Dmitri Smirnov

Starry Flute, Op 56 (1992) - Elena Firsova

Trio for clarinet, cello and piano (1994) - Katia Tchemberdji

De Profundis (1978) - Sofia Gubaidulina

Sonatina, Op 149 (1998) - James Wilson

The star turn of Concorde's programme of "New Music from Russia" in the John Field Room of the NCH last Friday was undoubtedly Sofia Gubaidulina's De Profundis for solo accordion. This composition reveals the astonishing tonal range of the instrument and makes use of it in a riveting manner. Dermot Dunne, the soloist, brought all his technical skills to bear, welding passages of the utmost complexity and others of a plangent simplicity into a fluent progression which was continually on the alert.

The other work for solo, Elena Firsova's Starry Flute, was pedestrian in comparison. This flute solo, like all the Russian works, had a fondness for what might be called disembodied sounds which emerged from and vanished into silence. The Trio by Katia Tchemberdji made clever use of silences in the three parts, but intervening sounds could be quite disjointed.

Dmitri Smirnov's Twilight for soprano, violin, clarinet, flute, cello, percussion and piano made a more pleasing impression. It is a setting of two poems from Joyce's Chamber Music and it was receiving its first performance. The evocative words had inspired the composer to some delicate tone-painting, but the demands of the music were often at variance with the words.

James Wilson is not Russian, but he has written a number of valuable works for accordion, and the presence of Dermot Dunne on the platform was reason enough to perform Wilson's Sonatina for clarinet, violin, cello and accordion. This work is quite short, neatly constructed and cheerful. It provided an admirable contrast to the mystical melancholy of the Russians.