I'll never laugh at the accordian again.

h/t to the New Yorker's Alex Ross. From whom the blogosphere has plagiarized all the best things on the internets for more than five years. The last movement of Summer from Vivaldi's Four Seasons in case you're wondering.

The accordionist is a 14-year-old Ukranian named Alexander Hrustevich. All I can say is that any composer who gets to write the first great accordion concerto is a very lucky artist. Here is something even more impressive: this kid playing the Godowsky paraphrase of Johann Strauss's overture to Die Fledermaus. Godowsky is one of the most notoriously difficult composers for pianists of all-time. Just imagine how difficult it is on the accordion.