Time in a Bottle

It was Jim Croce who sang about saving time in a bottle. It must have been evenings like that captured in today's video that inspired his song. Strollers are enjoying a late summer evening on the famous Charles Bridge in Prague. The tour boats on the river Vltava glide under the bridge. Prague Castle and St. Vitus Cathedral glow over the river and completing the moment are the strains of Libertango being played by a lone accordionist, his case open for donations, sitting in the dark near the rail of the bridge.

While the strollers no doubt enjoyed the music and probably even remember the moment today, chances are they were not aware that the accordionist, Evgen Lisniak, was one of the best young composers and accordionists in Europe. Lisniak is a Ukranian by birth who, with his wife, a talented violinist, moved to Prague in 2007 to study at the Prague Conservatory. He graduated from that conservatory probably just a few months before this video was made in August, 2009. That same year, Lisniak and his wife won first prize as duo performers at the Third Piazzolla Competition in Lanciano, Italy - perhaps playing something very similar to the Libertango you hear in this video. You can see him in the solo part of that competition here and in a more recent video performing Cobian's classic tango, Los Mareados, with his violinist wife. As a duo, they cover many Piazzolla compositions and I certainly hope video of some of those will eventually be found on YouTube.

If the video does not appear below, click here.



To learn more about Piazzolla videos, visit the Piazzolla Video site.

Follow Piazzolla on Video on Twitter.