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from accordion-reviews: |
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Mogens Ellegaard Back
in 1958, he persuaded the young Danish composer Ole Schmidt to
write an accordion concerto for him. The sensational premiere
performance with the Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra was followed by numerous
performances with European orchestras. Since
then Mogens Ellegaard has collaborated with numerous Danish and foreign composers
in the creation of an original repertoire for the classical accordion; solo
works, chamber music, concertos and pedagogical literature. Among the
composers: Vagn Holmboe, Per Norgard, Ib Norholm, Neils Viggo Bentzon,
Hans Abrahamsen, Poul Rovsing Olsen, Arne Nordheim, Antonio Bibalo, Ketil
Hvoslef, Finn Mortensen, Miklos Maros, Torbjorn Lundquist, Jindrich Feld,
Darius Milhaud, Zbigniew Bargielski, Andrzej Krzanowski. Ellegaard has
performed this music in solo recitals and chamber music concerts at such
places as Moscow, New York, Tel Aviv, Amsterdam, Rome, Paris, Dublin,
Reykjavik, Zagreb, to name a few. He
has been a soloist with
London's Royal Philharmonic, the Detroit Symphony, the Toronto Symphony,
Sudwestfunk Symphonie Orchester, Stockholm, Oslo and Helsinki Philharmonic
orchestras, BBC Scottish Symphony, and of course all of the Danish
orchestras. He
appears often at international
festivals such as Warsaw Autumn, I.S.C.M., and Bergen. Mogens
Ellegaard was appointed professor at the Royal Danish Academy in Copenhagen a
few years ago, having been head of its accordion department since 1970.
Since 1989, he has also been head of the accordion faculty of the Hochschule
fur Musik und Darstellende Kunst in Graz Austria. Internationally he is
a highly esteemed teacher who has conducted master class courses and
seminars; for example at Warsaw's Chopin Academy, Helsinki's Sibelius
Academy, Trossingen Bundesakademie (Germany), Conservatories in Holland,
Spain, etc. Among
his many students are practially all accordion teachers who presently teach
at Scandinavian music academies, as well as at the Royal Academy in London,
many Conservatories in Germany, Holland, and other locations. Numerous
students of his are prize-winners in international competitions. He
was for many years a member of the Trio
Mobile. Today he is concertizing extensively with a new trio
consisting of his Hungarian born pianist, and accordionist wife, Marta Bene
and Gert Sorensen, the brilliant young solo-percussionist in the Danish Radio
Symphony. Last year the trio was featured in the Austrian Styriarte
Festival and the Helsinki Festival. He is a founding member of the
International Accordion Society. |
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Review by Henry Doktorski:
Mogens Ellegaard
(1935-1995) -- who is regarded by many as the "father of the avant-garde
accordion movement" -- was one of the first classical accordion artists to
play the free-bass accordion. Due to his uncommon ability and determination, he
succeeded in popularizing the instrument among classical music circles, despite
general distaste for the accordion by composers and classical music lovers.
Ellegaard described his
introduction to the new accordion: "When I started, there was absolutely
no accordion culture. Unless, you define accordion culture as 'oom-pah-pah,' or
the Cuckoo Waltz -- that sort of thing. The free-bass accordion didn't exist --
it was entirely unknown when I was a child. At that time the accordion world
was living in splendid isolation. No contact at all with the outside musical
world. Concerts for us consisted of Frosini, Deiro repertoire or folkloristic
music. The possibilities of getting a formal, quality education [on accordion]
were nil. The accordion was not accepted at any of the higher music
institutions. . . . The possibilities for a soloist, for the best players,
would be variety 'night club' work, Saturday night shows. . . . This is what I
was doing when I was very young.
"But in 1953 the first
free-bass accordions were introduced in Denmark and, by coincidence, I was one
of the first students to get such an instrument. . . . In 1957, the pianist
Vilfred Kjaer, who was also well-known in our country as a composer of light
music, wrote a concerto for me and through his good connections, he was able to
organize the world premiere of Jubilesse infameuse. It was a work of light
character, but anyway a beginning. At that concert, also by coincidence, [the
composer] Ole Schmidt was sitting in the audience. He didn't like Kjaer's
composition, but liked the instrument, and told me this bluntly afterwards. So
I challenged him to write something better. In 1958 he wrote Symphonic Fantasy
and Allegro, op. 20 for accordion and orchestra, which was the first really
serious work for accordion written by a good composer.
"Symphonic Fantasy and
Allegro was an important break for me personally and also for our instrument.
It opened doors to our instrument which had been closed until then. I premiered
it with the Danish Radio Symphony. Until then, their music department had never
even considered the accordion. It was very favorably received by the critics,
by the musicians, by the music department and it was re-broadcast several
times. Other symphony orchestras were curious and wanted to do it . . . and Ole
Schmidt, being also a promising young conductor, easily organized performances
of this work. So we played it many times, during the next few years, with
practically all of our orchestras in Denmark, Norway and Sweden.
"He [Schmidt] had many
friends -- composer friends, who would visit him on Saturday nights at parties
-- wild parties where I was also present and met people and played. . . .
Things started to happen, little by little. . . . So I kept on more and more
deliberately, trying to persuade composers to write. During the next ten years,
I got a lot of people to write for me, which secured new engagements and
created openings for the instrument. . . . Composers would write because they
liked the instrument, [not just for money like in the United States] and they
saw possibilities of getting performances. . . .
"I think that we have
been in many ways privileged in Scandinavia. There are good composers there.
We've gotten a lot of good music and it covers a broad spectrum from concert
solo work to chamber music and very good concertos for accordion and orchestra
by well-known composers. . . . On the basis of this literature we attained some
respect in the music world."
end of quote from
"Interview," The Classical Accordion Society of Canada Newsletter
(March 1990), 3-5.
Mogens Ellegaard
Accordeonspilleren Mogens Ellegaard
(1936-1996) havde en stor karriere som professionel musiker med omfattende
koncertvirksomhed i bl.a. England, USA og Sverige. Han inspirerede mange
nordiske moderne komponister til at skrive for accordeon, og han uropførte
mange af disse værker. Samtidig havde han et udbredt pædagogisk virke som lærer
ved forskellige udenlandske konservatorier og som docent ved Det Kongelige
Danske Musikkonservatorium. I den forbindelse har han bl.a.
skrevet en accordeonskole. Ellegaards samling af hovedsageligt trykte noder
samt enkelte manuskripter og indspilninger kan danne udgangspunkt for en
undersøgelse af harmonikaens og accordeonens historie i Danmark i 1900-tallet,
hvor instrumenterne har oplevet et stærkt forøget klassisk repertoire. Samtidig
kan denne udvikling placeres i en international sammenhæng.
Historia del Acordeón
por Pierre Gervasioni
Un Concertista
Una zona de influencia internacional. Todo comenzó con motivo de un concierto
dado en 1.957
en Copenhague por Mogens Ellegaard. Al acabar éste,
Ole Schmidt (compositor y director de orquesta en Dinamarca), se acercó a
felicitarle y este le propuso componer obras para acordeón. Algunos meses
después, Ole Schmidt terminaba la "Fantasía sinfónica y allegro para
acordeón y orquesta".
Una nueva etapa quedaba franqueada en la elaboración de un repertorio original
de concierto.
La primera generación
1.957-67.
La "Fantasía sinfónica y allegro para acordeón y orquesta" aportaba
la prueba de la originalidad de las cualidades musicales del acordeón y ofrecía
a la vez a Mogens Ellegaard el pasaporte hacia
el mundo de la música culta. Pero ello hubiera sido insuficiente si no hubiera
sido acompañado de la rara inteligencia de Mogens, de su cultura general y musical. Durante
un primer decenio, el hacer de Ellegaard
se desarrollará principalmente en torno a tres personalidades fuertes de la
música contemporánea escandinava: Ole Schmidt , N.V. Bentzon y T. Lundquist. La
obra de este último, si bien destinada al concierto, fue pensada en su conjunto
desde un punto de vista pedagógico. Así su "Partita Piccola"(primera
pieza solo escrita en 1.965) fue seguida de un "Concierto de cámara"
para acordeón y orquesta, y marcaba una segunda etapa importante culminada por
la "Sonatina Piccola"(1.967). La creación de esta obra de debe a una
discusión que tuvo lugar en un seminario pedagógico que hubo en Trossingen en
Semana Santa de 1.967, en el que Lundquist defendió el desarrollo de pequeños
acordeones de basettis para niños y de la que surgieron obras como Plasticity,
Allerlei,etc..
La segunda generación
1.967-77.
Para el acordeón, 1.967 es un año importante por un doble motivo. Ya hemos
mencionado desde el punto de vista de la enseñanza, el carácter histórico de
Sonatina Piccola. Pero a la vez, Per Norgard compuso una obra que cambió
totalmente la concepción del acordeón;"Anatomic Safari". Esta obra hará imposible separar en la historia de la
música, la evolución de la literatura para acordeón de la de otros instrumentos
en la perspectiva de las características de lenguaje. Per Norgard fue pues el
primero de la joven generación de compositores nórdicos en tratar en
profundidad el caso del acordeón. Pero hay que citar también a autores como A.
Nordheim("Signals", Norholm("Sonate") y Rousing-Olsen(el
dúo: "Como tocar en Re M sin que lo parezca?").
1.977.Dinamarca, referencia internacional.
Paralelamente a su trabajo de colaboración con compositores,
Mogens ellegaard desarrollará una
nueva dimensión de la enseñanza concretada en 1.970 por la creación de una
clase acordeón en el Conservatorio Real de Copenhague. Podrá así transmitir a
jóvenes concertistas de toda Europa, Canadá,.. su experiencia única de un
repertorio casi enteramente creado por y para él.
Así, May Rantannen creó en 1.977 una clase acordeón
en la Academis Sibelius de Helsinki.
El camino de la nueva música, creada en dos tiempos por Hugo Hermann y Mogens Ellegaard,
es lo que vamos a estudiar seguidamente.
Aus den Werken von Mogens ELLEGAARD:
CD
„Jeux à trois“
Accordion Fireworks, Mogens
Ellegaard (Vox)
Speaking of "Flight of the Bumble Bee," this album by Ellegaard may represent the peak of accordion technical virtuosity. Every number seems designed to force Ellegaard to the limits of his instruments (and his arms and hands). All your classical finger-flyin' favorites: "Ritual Fire Dance," "Hora Staccato," even Bach's "Toccata and Fugue in D minor." Although Vox's well-intentioned stereo engineering seems a little pointless on a solo instrumental album.
NOTEN
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ELLEGAARD, MOGENS/PRIERGAARD |
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Polyphones
Spielbuch, Band IV von Mogens Ellegaard |
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Sieben
Sonaten von Domenico Scarlatti |
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Mogens
Ellegaard - Lars Holm – Torbjörn Lundquist Akkordeonschule
für die Jugend , für C-Griff Melodiebass Akkordeon, 3 Reihen links 3 Reihen
rechts Ehrling
förlagen, Stockholm1974 |
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Merete ELLEGAARD |
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Dirigentin und |
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Tochter von Mogens Ellegaard |
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MERETE ELLEGAARD
tillhör den unga generationen dirigenter, som just nu håller på att etablera
sig i svenskt musikliv. Hon avslutade sina studier i dirigentklassen på Kungl
Musikhögskolan i Stockholm våren 2000. Merete är dotter till den
världsberömda danske accordeonisten Mogens Ellegaard
och hon började tidigt spela både accordeon och piano. Vid 17 års ålder
började hon spela oboe för att få större möjligheter till ensemble- och
orkesterspel. Efter studier i oboespel och dirigering på Musikhögskolan i
Göteborg tog intresset för dirigeringen över och hon sökte sig till Stockholm
för vidare studier. |
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