August 14, 2015

  • 4 Fascinating Solo Saxophone Works

     About the Classical Saxophone

    Fabian Pablo-Muller, alto saxophone.  Olga Salogina, piano.
    Profil PH15010
    Total Time:  56:01
    Recording:   ****/****
    Performance: ****/****

    The present recording is essentially a study aid for saxophone students and performers.  A second disc actually just features a piano only track to allow you to “play along”.  The soloist here is Fabian Pablo Muller, a German-Argentinean now residing in Austria, who is a noted educator and clinician for the saxophone.  The unfortunate part is that for anyone coming across the disc, there is nothing about any of the music in the insert.

    The saxophone took a little while to enter into art music.  Even then, it tended to be viewed as a band, and essentially jazz instrument.  In the 1920s, it became an instrument that would add important color to the orchestra and for French composers in particular, it was one of the connections to American jazz that was the rage in Paris into the 1930s.

    It is from the end of that last decade that we discover the opening work on this recital, Paul Creston’s (1906-1985) Sonata, Op. 19 (1939).  The three-movement work, eschewing more traditional Italian tempo designations, features some of the great open harmonic writing that would become Creston’s signature sound with its dense chords and occasional chromaticism.  The music has a semi-romantic feel as well, especially in the more lyrical sections with beautiful soaring melodies.  The piano sometimes feels like a lighter Hindemith coupled with a little romantic salon style at times.  At the center is a lovely slow movement cast in 5/4, an asymmetrical rhythm still fairly “new” but would become more common as the century progressed.  A final movement moves us into a joyous celebration with a pause for some beautiful lyric writing.

    Next up is music by a relatively unknown Hungarian composer, JenoTakacs (1902-2005).  For a time he was a professor at the University of Cincinnati, Ohio; this after a rather colorful series of positions from Cairo to the Philippines.  The Two Fantastics, Op. 88 were composed in 1969 (the first appears to also be available for clarinet).  The music here is somewhat modern with interesting chromatic writing.  Clusters are part of the accompaniment in a more overall intense musical style that moves fluidly from dissonance to interesting harmonic ideas and clusters.  The latter sometimes feel as if they get stretched out in the piano lines while the soloist provides often beautiful lyric lines.  The second movement takes a page from the jazz hall with walking bass and an improvisatory feel.  Stravinsky-like chord punctuations also are part of what becomes a rather interesting melding of jazz and modern concert hall music.  The two parts become more involved as the movement unfolds and the music eventually appears to careen out of control to its conclusion.  It proves to be a rather interesting work worth exploring.

    Erwin Schulhoff (1894-1942) has been receiving a sort of “revival” over the past couple of decades as his music began to be performed and recorded more often.  His life was cut short by his internment at the Wulzberg concentration camp.  Having been labeled as a degenerate composer by the Nazis, his music unfortunately fell into neglect.  One of the interesting traits of his music is its tendency to incorporate jazz rhythms and fall more into a modernist camp, though some work does exhibit a slight connection to Late-romantic models.   Some may be familiar with a set of Hot Etudes for piano.  This Hot Sonata was composed in 1930 from a commission oddly enough from Berlin Radio.  It is set in four movements and has some of these jazz influences.  The opening movement has a nice dance-like feel with a Gershwin-esque ballad style and gorgeously chromatic melodic line.  The second movement in particular has a real dance-hall feel.  This is followed by a blues-like slower movement before an exciting finale closes thigns off.  This particular work has gained in popularity and sometimes can be heard in an orchestration that was done by Richard Rodney Bennett.

    The final work on the program is by Edison Denisov (1929-1996) whose music has slowly been appearing in Western concert halls.  He is from that generation of post-Shostakovich composers in the Soviet Union.  He was among those returning to more avant-garde styles.  His Sonata for alto saxophone (1970) has proven to be a somewhat popular recording with some 8 recordings available—quite a feat for a modern composer’s work.  The three-movement work employs a blend of serial and jazz techniques essentially moving from the former to the latter as the work progresses.

    With some digging, those who discover this album can find out more about the music.  The four works here are certainly engaging solo pieces and Pablo-Muller’s performances are fabulous.  The piano sound is balanced well in this recording and Salogina proves to be very apt at exploring the different styles and jazz inflections.  Certainly recommended to students of the instrument, but it is also an important album of music for 20th Century music fans as well.