The Fire Dance by

The Lithuanian Accordion Quintet Cantus

Last year, I had the opportunity to go out to Lithuania with fellow musicians Gus Wares, Jake Donnelly and Martin Dibbs.  Three gigs for the British Embassy and a wonderful time we had.  A gig in the capital, Vilnius followed by a couple of gigs out in the country.  We had a translator with us and as Jake called the steps of the ceilidh dances our translator promptly recalled them in either Lithuanian or Russian depending on which part of the country we were in and we had the locals louping and heoching to Strip The Willow and The Eightsome Reel etc.  The first night we met up with two members of the band Cantus, Audrius Kundrotas and Sandra Kleizaite.  After our gig they kindly showed us round Vilnius and presented us with an album of their music the following day. 

All five talented, dedicated musicians hail from Lithuania.  They are undergraduate or postgraduate students at the Lithuanian Academy of Music in Vilnius.  They all won prizes in national competitions as soloists before forming the accordion quintet Cantus.

The musical repertoire of the ensemble consists of both classical and modern compositions.  An important part of their repertoire centres on the work of the famous Argentinean composer, Astor Piazolla.  The CD Fire Dance is a selection of the music they have performed over the past five years.

There are four Piazolla pieces on the disc and the performances are stunning.  They tackle a Bach piece equally well.  Their arrangements are perfection.  You’d think that five accordions would get in each others way big time but not the case.  Each musical line is just enough and there are some blow-out crescendos.  A very sensitive album full of light and shade, it blew me away and I think it’s going to be lying about the van for a while yet. As far as I know, you can find info on these guys at www.accordions.com/cantus.