Joseph Haydn
Keyboard Concertos (2017)
The appeal lies in listening to music you are familiar with in a new and different light. People intuitively associate the sound of the accordion with musettes, tangos and folk music, with the result that Haydn’s music is heard in an unfamiliar tonal idiom. First and foremost, however, I want to convey the message of this music, and my means of doing so is – perhaps fortuitously – the accordion. My recording seeks to delight the listener, very much in the spirit of Haydn's remark that “What comes from the heart, also goes to the heart.”
“The concertos of Haydn work wonderfully well on the accordion, especially because they are performed with such sheer love of playing and verve by Viviane Chassot.”
“Zurich native Viviane Chassot does not perform his keyboard concertos on the ‘squeezebox’ as though it were the most natural thing in the world, but instead delights in playing them. That is phenomenal.”
“The experiment poses risks. Yet it makes sense and the result is convincing. (…) Now she revisits Haydn by recording four of his keyboard concertos which have rarely been heard with such spring freshness.”
“Not only does she play Haydn’s keyboard concertos with technical brilliance, but – especially in the slow movements – with a cantabile quality no concert grand attains, and which she displays to outstanding effect in her own cadenzas.”
“Never before has this music been heard so full of vivacity and energy, overflowing with bubbling humor and keen sensitivity.”
“Viviane Chassot shows off her ability to wonderful effect and in the same gesture champions Haydn, who in the triumvirate of Viennese Classicism should certainly not be underestimated.”