Mother of Sorrows - Nikki Martin | Flemming Valmundsson

From my Master's exam from The Royal Danish Academy of Music 05.06.23

From the concert program:
The resemblance of the visual of an accordionist playing, with the instrument's bellows spread on their lap, and the Christian iconography of the 'Pietà', in which the Virgin Mary cradles the dead body of Jesus Christ, sparked the initial idea of Nikki Martin's "Mother of Sorrows" (2010). The piece is the sister piece to the composer's earlier work for violin and viola, "Mother and Child", in which a mother is heard comforting her frightened baby with a simple lullaby.
In "Mother of Sorrows", the roles have transformed, as we now hear a crying mother, lamenting the death of her dead child, comforting herself by singing the lullaby that she once sung for her baby. The piece was composed for Bjarke Mogensen, who premiered it in Carnagie Hall on May 30th 2011, on Memorial Day, the United States' federal holiday for honouring and mourning military personnel who died while in service.
The very first time I got introduced to the piece was while traveling from Gothenburg to Copenhagen via Flixbus after an exceptionally inebriated choir trip, and as my body and soul are lamenting for their sins on this bus, me and my colleague start discussing accordion repertoire, as I soon had to decide what was going to be on my Bachelor exam program.
He mentions this harrowingly beautiful and painfully sad piece which could fit just right for me, but as I heard it I knew I didn't feel ready to such a challenge. 3 years later I am faced with the same task, choosing an exam repertoire, and through examining my program suggestions, it was apparent that there was a certain monochromatic bombast to my by-then choices. My teacher suggests this harrowingly beautiful and painfully sad piece which could fit just right for me, and I figured that even if it felt intimidating, I should face my fears and try to play the piece as respectfully as I can.

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