Helsinki – Masterclass and solo recital – Finland

Reviews

New York Times

Anthony Tommasini

Perhaps most captivating is the sheer range of strange, delicate and piercing sound the brilliant Bjarke Mogensen draws from the accordion; who needs synthesizers when you have this virtuoso in your ensemble.

Berlingske Tidende

Søren Schauser

Det uhyre beskedne multitalent ligner stadig mere en Kong Midas i dansk musik. Når han rører ved noget bliver det til guld.”

fyens.dk

Mikael Krarup

FYENS STIFTSTIDENDE ****

Når nu Scarlatti skrev langt over 500 hundrede af slagsen, når nu der findes oceaner af indspilninger med dem for instrumenter som koncertflygel, guitar, harpe med videre, så er der vel ingen grund til, at Bjarke Mogensen ikke også skulle kunne kaste sig over disse sprøde, elegante, begavede solo-sonater for cembalo.

Scarlatti stod – eller står vel stadig – noget i skyggen af Bach og Händel. Alle tre var endda på forunderlig vis født i det selvsamme år, 1685. Om man så bryder sig om disse sonater spillet på akkordeon, ja, det er vel en god og relevant diskussion værd. Helligbrøde er det i hvert fald ikke. 13 sonater har Bjarke Mogensen omhyggeligt udvalgt, og de repræsenterer både ømheden, elegancen, humoren, inderligheden og det svulstige hos Scarlatti.

Ikke uventet fremstår værkerne med et liv, en dynamik og en sjælfuldhed, som klæder dem, og som cembaloets knipserier af naturlige årsager jo slet ikke formår. Så lyt efter helt andre klange og nyd Bjarke Mogensens fine og respektfulde tilgang til de 13 sonater.

San Francisco Chronicle

Joshua Kosman

How’s this for an improbable turn of events: The most beautiful, dramatic and sheerly irresistible disc of new music to cross my desk in months is a compilation of four Scandinavian accordion concertos. Well, believe it. In lively, thoughtful performances by the remarkable Danish virtuoso Bjarke Mogensen, these pieces – two of them written for him – showcase the instrument’s versatility and color. What’s remarkable, too, is the way none of the composers here shies away from the accordion’s various associations – the music here is at once modern and tuneful, rhythmic and comical.

New York

Lucid Culture

Making his North American debut, hotshot Danish accordionist Bjarke Mogensen joined the ensemble for a richly genre-blending, emotionally intense yet frequently very playful US premiere of Anders Koppel’s Concerto Piccolo.

Koppel began his career as a rock musician while still in his teens, playing psychedelic pop with popular Danish export Savage Rose, but in the following years he moved to film music. This three-part suite proved as fascinating as it was well-played, leaping from jazzy, bass-driven Mingus-esque suspense to macabre Bernard Herrmann atmospherics to a surprisingly upbeat, subtly amusing conclusion.

Mogensen matched a whirlwind attack through a knotty thicket of accidentals to several wrenchingly beautiful, minimalistically ambient passages…