Finnur Karlsson

 Accordion Concerto

 A Dream About Flying
one and a
Thread / Longed For
two and a
Bontempi's Ghost
three and a
Et Cetera

Accordion Concerto is, like the name indicates, a concerto for accordion and a small orchestra. The concerto was written for Jónas Ásgeir Ásgeirsson and Elja Ensemble for a tour of Iceland in the summer of 2020. The piece was premiered in Miðgarður in Skagafjörður on the 30th of July 2020, a day before new Covid regulations took place in Iceland that resulted in the cancellation of the rest of the tour and a planned recording session in Reykjavík.

The piece was selected as “Work of the Year” at the Icelandic Music Prize in 2021.

The concerto is in seven short movements that draw inspiration from many different directions, like for example distorted quotations to songs with nostalgic significance to me (A Dream About Flying), a transcription of a broken keyboard (Bontempi’s Ghost) and various environmental sounds that made their way through my open window while I was writing the piece.

Three of the movements have similar titles; one and a, two and a, og three and a, but they are all written around a small bouncy song I wrote as a nod to the accordion’s roots in folk music. The final movement, Et Cetera, is also a fragmentation of this song.