A violinist in a former life, I have spent some quality time with Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto. However, I have just been schooled by Alexander Hrustevich, a Ukrainian-born accordion player. Do not be fooled! If you look closely, I’m pretty sure the kid has eight fingers on his right hand and/or is obscuring a small army of sweating musicians just out of the frame. But seriously, let us marvel at the wunderkind as he manages to cover the solo line and the entire orchestral accompaniment with just two hands.
[via Baltimore’s hometown classical music and drama critic, Mr. Tim Smith]
Amazing, technically and musically!
Thanks for posting this.
wonderful, magical playing! bravo! bravo! bravo! please play on!
This is a stunning feat. The Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto’s Third Movement was deemed impossible to play when it premiered. Tchaikovsky wrote it for his lover Iosif Kotek and they broke up over Kotek’s refusal to tackle it. Next came Leopold Auer and Adolph Brodsky, who in the words of the nasty anti-Semite critic Edward Hanslick, “beat the violin black and blue†playing this “stinking music.†Bohemian violin virtuoso Karel HalÃÅ™ finally figured out how to tame this unwieldy beast. The rest is history. For pianists, there is the notorious and feared Rachmaninoff Third. For sopranos there are Norma, Turandot and Isolde. For tenors there is Otello and for the baritones Hans Sachs and Rigoletto. For the violinists this is it, the Mount Everest of all concertos. Imagine what it means to play this monster on an accordion. Young Alexander Hrutevich takes up the challenge and comes out unscathed. Enjoy.
OK…….but can he play “Lady of Spain”?
Seriously…..phenomenal!