October 4, 2021
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Project Fusion Saxophone Quartet
Project Fusion: Bach Glazunov, Bozza, Maslanka
Project Fusion:
Daniel Espinoza, soprano saxophone.
Matthew Amedio, alto saxophone.
Michael Sawzin, tenor saxophone.
Matthew Evans, baritone saxophone.
Bridge Records 9561
Total Time: 58:38
Recording: ****/****
Performance: ****/****The saxophone quartet, Project Fusion, give listeners a chance to hear the range and versatility of the modern saxophone in their new release featuring the work of four composers. The album opens with a transcription of Bach’s chorale, Durch Adams Fall, BWV 18. It will reappear in new guise in the concluding work on this release, David Maslanka’s Recitation Book (2006). But first, we are treated to a couple of important repertoire works.
Alexander Glazunov (1865-1936) is perhaps better known for his ballet music and symphonies. Towards the end of his life, he discovered, and fell in love with the saxophone and would compose a concerto as well as the Quartet in Bb, Op. 109 (1932) recorded here. This is a substantial chamber work in three movements. Conceptually, the piece focuses on sonority and harmony which lends it a somewhat experimental quality all within a modern romantic idiom. The opening waltz is a the first of these aesthetic explorations of rhythm and style which continues into the central movement;s “Canzona variee”. In effect, it is a theme and variations with a twist as Glazunov moves the canzone through instrumental registers and then adds some homage to Schumann and Chopin, bringing us a little salon-like moment. The final “Allegro moderato” allows for more technical displays and a lighter finale for a quite enjoyable work.
Eugene Bozza’s (1905-1991) Andante and scherzo (1938) precedes his own stylistic development and serves to provide a window into his earlier compositions. Here we get a little of the late Impressionistic qualities a la Ravel and some of the modernist hints that take their cues from Stravinsky and Roussel. The work provides a bit of a palette cleanser before the closing work.
The prolific American composer David Maskanka (1943-2017) is perhaps best known for his wind band pieces. A hallmark of his style is to meld other musics interpretively into settings that are idiomatic for wind instruments, often from works not associated with them. His Recitation Book (2006) serves as a sort of classic example of this postmodernism where all things can be made equal while also feeling a bit like a personal reflection of his own work and life. The piece at its core is a meditation on life and death with a quite spiritual quality. Maslanka has chosen music by Bach, Gesualdo, and a Gregorian Chant as the sources of departure for this suite of five reflections. The work explores the sonorous qualities of the different saxophone voices in beautiful writing that allows the thematic ideas to float above lyrical harmonic shifts leading to an enthralling piece. There is a sense of askance, questioning, and somber resignation that brings us through this often contemplative work.
This is a quite engrossing release of music with fine repertoire choices that lend themselves well to those interested in expanding their musical horizons a bit. The performances are stunningly captured here and one suspects this will be a recording one can return to often.