Caprice d’accordéoniste

by Thibault Perrine

Fantasy for accordion and symphony orchestra

duration: 7 min / commissioned by Félicien Brut

creation : July 2018, in the Festival “Un Violon sur le Sable” – Royan (17)
with the Festival Orchestra, conducted by Jérôme Pillement

recording : album “J’ai deux amours” published in October 2022 by Erato/Warner Classics
with the National Orchestra of Bordeaux-Aquitaine, conducted by Pierre Dumoussaud

« The accordionist.

The one from the Piaf song.

He left as a soldier…

He won’t come back!

Memories come back one last time, mixed up.

A ball in the faubourg…

Tunes of the waltz musette, of java…

The girl of joy who looks at him with her loving eyes.

She starts to dance, to turn…

Stop the music! »

Caprice d’accordéoniste is a brilliant and virtuoso 7-minute piece for accordion and orchestra, entirely based on famous themes from the musette repertoire.

Caprice d’accordéoniste in a few words…

Go up the rue de Lappe, pass under the sign of the Balajo then join the place de la Bastille because it is here, a century ago, that everything was played! The Auvergnats, kings of the neighborhood and of folk music, met the Italian immigrants who had in their luggage this new instrument, the accordion. Together they invented a new style of dance music: the musette.

In 2018, Félicien is invited to the festival “Un Violon sur le Sable”. He then asked his friend Thibault Perrine to write a piece for accordion and symphony orchestra. With all his inventiveness, Thibault imagined this Caprice d’accordéoniste, virtuoso and festive, nourished by famous themes and characteristic rhythms of the musette.

As life reserves some curious coincidences, it so happens that the first reading of this piece will be performed in the rehearsal studios of the Opéra Bastille. It is thus there that this piece will have been played for the first time, at the corner of the street over there, close to an accordionist who played the java… Go up the street of Lappe, pass under the sign of the Balajo then join the place of the Bastille because it is here, one century ago, that all was played! The Auvergnats, kings of the neighborhood and of folk music, met the Italian immigrants who had in their luggage this new instrument, the accordion. Together they invented a new style of dance music: the musette.

In 2018, Félicien is invited to the festival “Un Violon sur le Sable”. He then asked his friend Thibault Perrine to write a piece for accordion and symphony orchestra. With all his inventiveness, Thibault imagined this Caprice d’accordéoniste, virtuoso and festive, nourished by famous themes and characteristic rhythms of the musette.

As life reserves some curious coincidences, it so happens that the first reading of this piece will be performed in the rehearsal studios of the Opéra Bastille. It is thus there that this piece will have been played for the first time, at the corner of the street over there, close to an accordionist who played the java…