Edinburgh International Festival review: James Crabb

Published on Tuesday 31 August 2010 19:25

JAMES CRABB **** THE HUB, EDINBURGH

To describe James Crabb simply as an accordionist is to underestimate the power of his free-bass orchestral instrument, which allows both hands to play melodies and chords with a dynamic multi-octave range.

The enormous possibilities this offers was brilliantly exhibited in John Zorn's Road Runner, which calls for astonishing dexterity as, with hilarious musical wit, it shifts rapidly from one teasing fragment to another. It is as if the musician is providing the soundscape for a cartoon-style race, shooting past a hundred doors with different tunes coming from each.

This thrilling piece came at the end of a concert which included Alasdair Nicolson's Don't Explain, a previous commission for Crabb, introduced by the iconic voice of Billie Holiday singing before a beautifully intense homage to its essence.

While the rest of the programme – particularly Aaron Copland's jazzy Three Moods – gave absorbing pleasure, the tangos were more tricky to enjoy fully, largely because sequencing them into stylised suites deprived them of their individual punch. They were played fluently and with passion but in their translation from the bandoneon the melodrama that fired them disappeared.

The contrast between lively early period Piazzolla pieces and those with darker interiors was transmitted, yet Piazzolla loved to heave the bellows over his knee, making them groan as well as weep. Turning the classic works Mala Junta, Soledad, Vieja Guardia, Mi Refugio and El Marne, which are all by different composers, into one long extended tango felt like betrayal of their original spirit.