Lost and found... found!

Those who have not yet had the pleasure of hearing Viviane Chassot's astonishing virtuosity and musicality will be stunned from the very first bars of Musica ricercata by Ligeti! The agile fingers of this accordionist - and her arms that measure out the wind - mean that no-one can resist listening to such a performance: not Alfred Brendel, listening to Haydn's piano sonatas transcribed for accordion (Genuin 89162), nor several contemporary composers, seduced by her inventiveness and unprecedented power of expression (New Horizons Genuin 14315).

Thanks to the accordion's free-fluttering reeds - which belong to the same family as the harmonica or harmonium - the instrument revisits in these Lost & Found an anthology of admittedly disparate compositions, most of them transcribed by the performers themselves, who take the listener on a journey through four centuries. The accordion's supple sound blends perfectly with a variety of chamber music instruments of very different character. By way of comparison, let yourself be seduced by another CD, Antiquitieswith Mie Miki on accordion and Nobuko Imai on viola (BIS-CD-1229).

Exchanging subtle nuances with the accordion, our citharist is striking in Lachrymae Antiquae and Lachrymae Verae. The Chassot-Mallaun duo caresses each phrase with sadness, dances with lightness in the two pieces by François Couperin or teases gently in the Chess Pieces by John Cage. In this way, our performers bring together composers who had been separated by history.

As a soloist, Martin Mallaun's zither resonates more fully than John Dowland's simple lute, and the artist plucks the strings with infinite delicacy in the King of Denmark's Galiard and Preludium. It's magical!

But our citharist, like the accordionist, is also capable of surprising aggression on stage! If the former sometimes slams his strings à la Bartókthe second snatches our attention with brutal accents or deep, menacing growls. The least we can say is that this duo reveals a South American sense of rhythm in Piazzolla (except in the nostalgia-tinged sequences!), and in Ligeti, a commitment and energy drawn from the depths of Central Europe.

The astonishing presence and fidelity of the recording reproduce the natural acoustics of the "Zur Ratte", Leipzig's legendary folk establishment. Last but not least, the CD's excellent presentation makes it an ideal Christmas gift!

Objets Trouvés. Works for Accordion and Zither by Ligeti, Dowland, Couperin, Cage and Piazzolla. Viviane Chassot, Accordion; Martin Mallaun, Zither. Genuin classics GEN 16439