Doktorski tells the story of the origin of the imaginative arrangements: “In June 1992, I visited the largest music store in Pittsburgh and asked for Christmas music. Not just any ordinary arrangements of Christmas music, however. I wanted something interesting, something exciting, something contrapuntal, something intellectually stimulating like the music of my favorite composer, J. S. Bach.

“I searched in the piano department, the organ and choral department, the brass department and the strings department. But although the store had hundreds of arrangements of Christmas music, none of them, I felt, were really what I was looking for. After many hours of reading through music scores, sheet music and anthologies, I sadly left the store and returned to my car.

“Just then, a conscientious store employee ran out into the parking lot shouting and waving a book in his had, ‘We found something you might like, ’ he panted. ‘Look at this! ’

“I glanced through the book, entitled Christmas Holiday and immediately was delighted beyond my wildest expectations. Here was an anthology of superb arrangements of Christmas music—tasteful, artistic, and in a contrapuntal style. One of the carols was arranged as a two part invention, another with Alberti basses, another as a canon at the octave, another as a theme and variations. My search had ended!

“I turned to the cover and eagerly sought the name of the master craftsman who had written such interesting arrangements and saw the name: Willard A. Palmer, the same author of my first accordion method book which I had studied some thirty years ago!

“I this recording, I have expanded some of Dr. Palmer’s scores and included several of my own. I then orchestrated the pieces for accordion, harp, piano, strings, winds and percussion. The result is I hope a tasteful and musical presentation of Christmas music which will delight and uplift the spirit in all of us. ”

The most distinctive feature of these arrangements, besides their clever twists of musical speech, is the use of the accordion as the principal instrument. No doubt it will come as a great surprise to most American audiophiles to hear an instrument commonly impoverished by its association with proletarian polka bands and German beer gardens on a recording with such sophisticated taste and music merit. It is a pity that the concert accordion is not well known to United States audiences. It is, however, a respected classical instrument in Europe and Russia where it is regularly heard in contemporary music concerts. Continental conservatories, including the Moscow Conservatory and the Akademia Muzyczna im. Fryderyka Chopina in Warsaw, teach classical accordion, as do many European colleges and universities.

According to Dr. William Schimmel, dean of the Neupauer Conservatory of Music, the accordion is an instrument which has been “invented” many times. As far back as the second century it appeared in China as the cheng, a small mouth-blown organ used to accompany the singing of monks. It appeared again during the Renaissance in France and Italy as the portative organ. In the early 1800s it showed up in Czechoslovakia as an all-button instrument with bellows. It was invented again and again and appeared under such names as harmonium, concertina, bandoneon, bayan and mussette, to name a few.

The instrument heard in this recording is a free-bass concert accordion. The free-bass left hand manual enables the artist to perform difficult contrapuntal music with both hands up to a range of seven octaves. This fairly recent innovation liberated the performer from the limited oom-pah-pah sound of the bass and chord accompaniments characteristic of the tradition accordion. Listen to the accordion solos. Bach’s Prelude and Toccata is a fine example which displays the virtuosity of the concert accordion. Note for note, it is an exact literal transcription of a work originally written for pipe organ.

Doktorski’s instrument, built in Italy by skilled craftsmen, has been called “the Stradivarius of accordions. ” It was entirely hand-made, from the Swedish blue tempered steel reeds to the final polish. The inner parts of the instrument are built with precious wood which had first been aged twenty years to insure maximum resonance and acoustical properties. The resulting sound is unique, rich and full-bodied, and very refined.

“I’d like to help to enlighten the public’s awareness of the beauty, grace and sensitivity of the concert accordion, ” Doktorski said. “Most people don’t realize what a serious instrument it can become in the hands of a master musician. ”

A Classical Christmas will receive many spins in your compact disc player, not just during Christmastide, but throughout the calendar year.

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