How to cut down Accolay

Edited: November 22, 2025, 10:30 AM · Greetings!

D has been asked to play a solo at her schools Christmas concert.

She has offered the Accolay concerto since she is preparing it anyway for her January studio recital and it would conveniently be the same accompanist.

At my suggestion, she also offered the Bach-Gounod Ave Maria, being rather shorter, nicely Christmassy, easy on the audience and feasible to dust off at short notice.

She doesn’t want to do anything Baroque since she is afraid the audience would find it boring, doesn’t really have anything else down currently that would fit and doesn’t have the time to prepare anything new.

Her school teachers (brass, percussion and choir specialists, no string players among them) want her to do the Accolay, but “shorter”.

Anyone’s performed or taught a shortened Accolay before? Where would you cut? There is nothing really obvious for me. She will see her teacher in a weeks time, I’d love to have an idea whether this is at all feasible before that.

Thank you very much for any ideas,

Replies (4)

Paul Deck

November 22, 2025, 11:16 AM · About halfway through the piece there is a long piano interlude. Save the last two bars of that, to be used as an introduction, and then start there (ca. bar 116, note that I counted hastily) and play to the end.

Leonore Petruch

November 22, 2025, 11:45 AM · So just start where the theme comes back in again? That’s a possibility, thank you! I’ll have to check with D whether that would leave out a favourite bit…

Paul Deck

November 22, 2025, 12:38 PM · There's plenty of bow-shaking after that. :)

Andrew Fryer

Edited: November 22, 2025, 2:57 PM · Shorten it by removing the notes, then play Ave Maria as an encore.