“More than slow” for Debussy, “Noble and Sentimental” for Ravel, “Sad” for Sibelius, “Brillant” for Chopin, the Waltz deserted the plush comfort of the salons for the popular bals establishing the accordion as master of ceremonies of a music now become “musette” – sensual, light and impertinent. Dance music, full of either “joie de vivre” or melancholic reverie.
A few pieces of sheet music long neglected in a draw in his father’s house were enough to ignite Richard Galliano’s imagination, reviving memories of a childhood swathed in musette waltzes.
As accordionist with an open mind, seamlessly gliding between styles and influences, from a Bach fugue to a Piazzolla tango, from a Chet Baker solo to a ballad by Michel Legrand, Richard Galliano has conceived this new work like a gastronomic menu, to delight musical epicureans with an ear for innovation eager to savour the nostalgic charm of another era.
A few pieces of sheet music long neglected in a draw in his father’s house were enough to ignite Richard Galliano’s imagination, reviving memories of a childhood swathed in musette waltzes.
As accordionist with an open mind, seamlessly gliding between styles and influences, from a Bach fugue to a Piazzolla tango, from a Chet Baker solo to a ballad by Michel Legrand, Richard Galliano has conceived this new work like a gastronomic menu, to delight musical epicureans with an ear for innovation eager to savour the nostalgic charm of another era.
Invoking the celestial manes of his predecessors and of all those composers or singers who have nourished his inspiration as accompanist, arranger or composer, Richard Galliano masterfully guides his instrument through an exploration of his unique, reductive approach to melody, allowing it’s very quintessence to effortlessly breathe.
It’s not by chance that the indelible silhouette of Barbara hovers over the opening of this “Nostalgia Ball” with “Ma plus belle histoire d’amour” – an affirmation of Galliano’s fifty years devotion to music and song.
After the tribute to the “Lady in Black” comes Henri Sauguet’s “Forains”, a warm romance which could have been heard cascading from an old fairground organ near the Grand Carrousel in the Tuileries Gardens.
Then, beneath the lanterns of an eternal street party, he evokes the memory of his lifetime friend André Astier and his “Souvenir d’Accordion – a Sunday stroll when everyone took the time to hang out to the sound of a magical radio brightening the sky on a grey day.
And who cares about those grey skies when on the outskirts of the city there is “il piccolo circo” enchanting the children and making a haven of happiness in a hardworking life, bringing time to a standstill to the sound of the Shostakovich Waltz in gently vertiginous leaps and swirls !
Now it’s time to relax beneath the branches of the trees in an imaginary park next to the bandstand where the accordionist is in a dialogue with Chopin’s Waltz, more readily inclined towards reverie than dance.
Carefree couples gaily stepping out are delighted to surprise, at the bend of the path, the happy carefree of “Marion”, a piece composed in great secrecy by Richard’s father, Lucien Galliano, doubtless inspired by his granddaughter and celebrating, through this musical gem, the eternal youth of this beloved little girl.
And then, comes the Paris of Eric Satie, whose languorous soul haunts the streets of Montmartre to the slow lilt of an evanescent Gymnopédie giving way to “Amour et Printemps” by Émile Waldteufel, a romanesque farewell to the City of Lights before she glides into a new century of jazz, java, swing and bal musette , the photography of Robert Doisneau and the cinema-club of Claude Jean-Philippe.
But, just before indulging in the pleasures of the dance, the accordionist seizes a private moment to offer up his sadness to the heavens with “À Mario”, a moving homage to his recently deceased Italian friend.
And so the waltz, ever hungry for new sensations, takes the lead in the shape of Louis Ferrari’s “Rabouine”, a fiery gitane whose graceful movements swirl like Chinese shadows in the half-light of a cellar in Saint-Germain-des-Prés, dissolving into the spiralling cigarette smoke.
And because love stories are timeless, emotion flowing through his fingertips, Richard Galliano gives us another tender offering, this time to his granddaughter “Lili” a priceless, innocent jewel.
Youth has scampered away but the voice of Claude Nougaro can still be heard “O que sera” in the Allée des Brouillards and if perchance she happens to disturb “Les Vagues de l’Âme” with a gentle, nostalgic breeze and to cloud our vision with a passing chagrin, the heart will still dance on right up to the last chord, to the last homage, until the “Valse de l’Adieu”.
Life Waltzing, whirling and whisked away
