Bruzdowicz,
a pupil of Messiaen with a gift for
Gallic-accented melody, launches this
collection with her Largo. It's
from her film music for Jacquot de
Nantes (1991) - Rachmaninov's Vocalise
out of Fauré and with a decidedly
sombre curve. Away from the soprano
saxophone to the alto with Raman's
gentle Aria which was inspired
by the Bozza Aria. Raman was
a pupil of Paul Chihara - who himself
wrote a saxophone concerto (1981) which
was premiered by Harvey Pittel in Boston.
Raman's Aria moves in dove-gentle
tones between Barber and Vaughan Williams.
Kilar's Vocalise, with
solo parts for harpsichord and piano,
unfolds at unhurried leisure. It has
the mien and plaintive droop of the
quieter parts of Nyman's Where the
Bee Dances. The Villa-Lobos
is well enough known from the soprano
original - a pity we do not get the
whole thing. Leatherbarrow was
born in England but is how studying
in the USA. His Don Quixote in Love
is an offshoot from a work-in-progress,
tone-poem The Last Dream of Don Quixote
for soprano saxophone and full orchestra.
The work heard here is tender and melodic
with a Delian susurration over which
the saxophone slowly glides and courses.
Gleaming strings melt their way from
phrase to phrase. The sound recalls
an intensely romantic take on the ‘seagull
music’ from Watership Down. Bozza's
equable and feminine Aria is
the oldest piece here. It was dedicated
to Marcel Mule. The apt orchestration
is by Hunter Ewen. While Bozza cannot
quite match his likely models, the Ravel
and Fauré Pavanes, this is certainly
an agreeable and moodily pleasing piece.
David Morgan (not
the same David Morgan whose Contrasts
recently featured on Lyrita), based
at Youngstown University, writes for
both the jazz and classical worlds.
The triptych that is the Three Vignettes
was written specially for Greg Banaszak.
The first vignette is The Secret
of the Golden Flower and moves without
effort between Vaughan Williams and
an Oriental sway: fast, punchy and meditative.
Consolation has the contours
of a primitive church hymn moving through
a mist of melancholy. The final First
Light makes play with Latin-American
dance. Elements of rumba and tango are
married to 1950s-style commercial sophisticated
light music. Morgan's writing is delicate
and luminously orchestrated. An undemanding delight.
The Hovhaness concerto
was written for the New England Conservatory,
then performed once by the Chatauqua
Symphony and forgotten. The composer's
widow assures us that like many works
of its vintage the solo line was written
with her high coloratura voice in mind.
This seems completely plausible and
by all means listen to the later Poseidon
CDs for further proof. The three movement
concerto pleases with its high sinuous
solo line and breathing string figuration.
The second movement is a surprise: its
instrumental solo melody suggests sentimental
British music-hall rather than Eastern
esoterica. The composer also draws here
on a dashing Mozartian effervescence
which only once reconnects with Hovhaness's
core lingua franca. The finale carries
the archetypical title Let the Living
and the Celestial Sing. It returns
us to the composer's 'campground' with
delicate pizzicati, great wheeling yet
grounded angelic paeans and sinuous
foregrounded solos. These are lent airy
movement by surprising interactions
with the warm string choir. Intriguingly,
even in this last movement, Hovhaness
admits elements of sentimentality to
interact with the devotional.
The helpful notes are
by Dr Myron Schwager and provide us
with pretty well everything we want
to know about this music. It's a shame
we don't get birth years for some of
the composers and dates of some of the
compositions. Also regrettable are persistent
little errors such as Hovhannes
for Hovhaness and Rubenstein
for Rubinstein. These are small
flies in the ointment in what is a pleasingly
consistent collection for those wanting
melodic tonal music for saxophone and
orchestra.
Rob Barnett
for details
Greg Banaszak (soprano and alto saxophones)
