Bidaia is a concertante piece for accordion and symphony orchestra dedicated to my much admired Iñaki Alberdi. Hence the work takes its name from the Basque language; Bidaia means “journey”. The work is inspired by the poem by K. Kavafis, Ithaca, which is, among other things, a praise of the journey and transit.

Bidaia is structured in five main movements: Jai (“Party”), Ontziz (“On the boat”), Tximistak (“Lightning”), Ilunak (“Shadows”) and Makinak (“Mechanisms”). These five main movements, symbolising different journeys, are preceded and interspersed by solo accordion passages, ad libitum. Something like transits between the different journeys or wanderings of the soloist.

Finally, in the coda, the orchestra exposes the material of the soloist’s transits during his transits and develops it freely. For its part, the accordion improvises in counterpoint with these variations. Also heard throughout this farewell are brief quotations of melodic, rhythmic or textural material from the various previous movements by small groups within the orchestra. Something like souvenirs, photos or postcards of the journeys undertaken. While the rest of the orchestra and the soloist continue to focus on developing their transit, following Kavafis’ recommendation in his Ithaca:

“Always keep Ithaca in your mind.
Getting there is your destination.
But don’t be in the slightest hurry on your journey.
It is better that it lasts many years
and that old at last you arrive at the island.”

Federico Jusid

As an accordion player, my career has been permanently in contact with contemporary music. Moreover, there has always been a part of me that needed to be a vehicle for the very rich tradition of Western music through the transcription of pieces written for other instruments. Both Piazzolla and Soler were inspired, more or less obviously, by rhythms and gestures of different folk dances and dances of humble extraction, such as the fandango and, obviously, the tango. Following the baroque formula of grouping in a superior musical unit the juxtaposition of different dances under the name of suite, I wanted to play with time and space, in a recital that condenses all the artistic impulses of my career.

Iñaki Alberdi

Based on an investigation of six pieces from the repertoire for microtonal and tempered accordion, Dream is a hybrid between a concerto of contemporary music with score and a jazz concert, sometimes based on a significant percentage of improvisation. With a common starting point at the beginning of the 20th century, both aesthetic and musical currents have developed in parallel in completely different social contexts and cultural scenes. With this project I intend to bring avant-garde music to the jazz club, and jazz improvisation and methodology to the concert hall, in order to find a common symbolic space.

Iñaki Alberdi

Piazzolla’s legacy as a fundamental musician of the 20th century captures many of the aspirations of my career as an accordionist. His creativity managed to make the traditional new and modern, to make the new creation part of the repertoire and, moreover, to enjoy immense popularity. The first two characteristics are certainly part of my aims, the popularity I would not want for myself, but for the accordion as an instrument. And as if that were not enough inspiration, his writing for bandoneon has transmitted to many contemporary accordionists how to redefine the reality of an instrument, establish models of collaboration and enhance all the technical and expressive possibilities of an instrument by means of a new language.

Iñaki Alberdi