Claude Memma
2016-04-23 13:32:56 UTC
Hello one and all,
I accidentally found this google group when frantically searching for an amazing piece of music I had lost some years after performing it at the National Australian Accordion Championships back in 1983. I had stopped playing for a long time and over time, lost a lot of my old music sheets.
Anyway the piece I was searching for is "Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto Opus 35, 3rd Movement" and I could not even recall who had arranged that wonderful piece. Eventually I located what was probably the last remaining original copy in the world and purchased it so it is now on its way to Australia! I hope to play it again one day soon as I found I had not lost too much of my abilities and technique even after some 16 years of not playing the accordion at all.
I found out that the arrangers were Frank Gaviani (whom I had heard of in the past) and one man called "Mickey Bisilia" and it was released/published as part of the "Pagani Collection of Contest Winning Numbers" (New York) back in 1959.
This tweaked my interest in who exactly Mickey Bisilia was (obviously a master and genius of the accordion in so many ways!) and I discovered that he passed away back in the year 2000. It would be great to discover some of the other pieces that Mickey assisted in arranging as I have no doubt they would be spectacular and somewhat challenging to master on the accordion.
Anyway the accordion was and is still very much alive and vibrant in Australia these days and my hearfelt thanks goes out to all of the wonderful Americans (from Frosini/Deiro to Magnante/Biviani to Nunzio to Bisilia etc) who put in so much work (from musicianship to manufacturing ideas) to make the accordion what it is today!
Back in 1983 I owned a Giuletti Bassetti Classic 127 Double Cassotto accordion made for me (with extra keys and bells and whistles) especially from Italy but I found that the left hand side of the accordion (convertible bass system) was just way too heavy (in weight terms) for performing very high level classical pieces such as the piece mentioned herein. I ended up selling it a long time ago and only just recently purchased an older Settimio Soprani 120 Bass 4 Reed accordion in excellent condition to get me back into the swing of things again (before I venture out and obtain another "cassotto" accordion - I have always loved the sound of the Titano and will probably settle for a Titano convertible of some kind - one that is fairly compact and not too heavy).
Anyway it was a pleasant surprise to find an accordion google group such as this, with excellent information on all things accordion!
Look forward to reading the posts in the future!
I accidentally found this google group when frantically searching for an amazing piece of music I had lost some years after performing it at the National Australian Accordion Championships back in 1983. I had stopped playing for a long time and over time, lost a lot of my old music sheets.
Anyway the piece I was searching for is "Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto Opus 35, 3rd Movement" and I could not even recall who had arranged that wonderful piece. Eventually I located what was probably the last remaining original copy in the world and purchased it so it is now on its way to Australia! I hope to play it again one day soon as I found I had not lost too much of my abilities and technique even after some 16 years of not playing the accordion at all.
I found out that the arrangers were Frank Gaviani (whom I had heard of in the past) and one man called "Mickey Bisilia" and it was released/published as part of the "Pagani Collection of Contest Winning Numbers" (New York) back in 1959.
This tweaked my interest in who exactly Mickey Bisilia was (obviously a master and genius of the accordion in so many ways!) and I discovered that he passed away back in the year 2000. It would be great to discover some of the other pieces that Mickey assisted in arranging as I have no doubt they would be spectacular and somewhat challenging to master on the accordion.
Anyway the accordion was and is still very much alive and vibrant in Australia these days and my hearfelt thanks goes out to all of the wonderful Americans (from Frosini/Deiro to Magnante/Biviani to Nunzio to Bisilia etc) who put in so much work (from musicianship to manufacturing ideas) to make the accordion what it is today!
Back in 1983 I owned a Giuletti Bassetti Classic 127 Double Cassotto accordion made for me (with extra keys and bells and whistles) especially from Italy but I found that the left hand side of the accordion (convertible bass system) was just way too heavy (in weight terms) for performing very high level classical pieces such as the piece mentioned herein. I ended up selling it a long time ago and only just recently purchased an older Settimio Soprani 120 Bass 4 Reed accordion in excellent condition to get me back into the swing of things again (before I venture out and obtain another "cassotto" accordion - I have always loved the sound of the Titano and will probably settle for a Titano convertible of some kind - one that is fairly compact and not too heavy).
Anyway it was a pleasant surprise to find an accordion google group such as this, with excellent information on all things accordion!
Look forward to reading the posts in the future!