Valse Triste, Jean Sibelius, Op. 44 nr. 1

Professor P plays "Valse Triste" from the incidental music for the play Kuolema (meaning "death"), by Jean Sibelius, in arrangement for accordion quintet by Paul De Bra.
This music had different titles throughout history. "Valse Triste", together with "Scene with Cranes", became Opus 44, numbers 1 and 2. (This was done posthumously, in1973.)
The arrangement sounds deceptively easy, but in fact it has several difficulties: 1) changes in tempo are difficult to get right without a conductor, 2) especially in the second voice chord sequences may be difficult without the ability to do "diviso", end 3) the bellows shake near the end is difficult to play on the bass accordion. But it can also be played on a full-size bayan (better suited for playing bellows shake).

Note that this work is only in the public domain in sensible parts of the world because 1) it was performed before 1923 and 2) Sibelius died over 50 years ago. Other countries (including the EU countries) have to wait until 2028.

Enjoy!

PS: the first voice in this recording is not played using one of the depicted accordion but on a Bugari 289/ARS/C that was just tuned (without tremolo), using mostly registers 8-8, 8-8-4 and 8-8-16.