While Luciano Berio's Sequenza series concentrates for the most part on common solo or orchestral instruments, Sequenza XIII (1995 - 96), subtitled "Chanson," reveals most clearly the role a particular performer may have in the composer's decision to confront an instrument and its history. Teodoro Anzellotti, a virtual Paganini of the accordion, almost singlehandedly transformed the instrument into one of classical potential, adding to the depth and breadth of the its folk and popular history. Sequenza XIII, while keeping one ear trained on this history, is a kind of Baroque prelude for the accordion, freely expressed but technically constrained, which takes Berio's solid harmonic foundations and adds to them the carefree but melancholy gestures inherent to the accordion.

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