The Belgian accordionist Philippe Thuriot has been playing on the international stages for 25 years. As a musician, Phillipe has diverse interests, ranging from jazz to improvisation and classical music. In 2015, he recorded the Goldberg Variations by J.S. Bach for the Warner Classics / Klara label to international critical acclaim. For this new solo album featuring works by Maurice Ravel and François Couperin, he made arrangements of La Valse, Le Tombeau de Couperin, Alborada del Gracioso and the Menuet Antique.

“Until now, I thought it would be impossible to play Maurice Ravel’s work on the accordion due to the ‘short reverb’ of my instrument. I only recently found the key to unravel and adapt certain works. To me, the fact that Ravel often adapted his own piano pieces for the orchestra was decisive.

“Le Tombeau de Couperin was inspired by the baroque suite. Given that baroque music is not unexplored territory for accordionists, I tackled this suite first, and the works of Couperin naturally followed. That is how I built a bridge to the Menuet antique and Pavane. The decision to play La valse only came much later because it was very difficult to adapt the work for my ‘knee-orchestra’. It was initially far from certain that I would be able to crack all the codes, but my instrument gradually started to recognize the three-quarter time through that other French connection, the valse-musette.”

– Philippe Thuriot