Music Chamber

Elliott Carter (1908-)   Canonic Suite

Fanfare ~ Nocturne ~ Tarantella

 

Liz Johnson O Vos

 

JS Bach (1685-1750) Prelude and Fugue No 29 in D BWV874 (arr. Percy Grainger in Eb)

 

Edward McGuire (1948-) Remembrance

 

Jan Dismas Zelenka (1679-1745) Trio Sonata No 1 in F (arr. Kyle Horch)

Adagio ma non troppo ~ Allegro ~ Larghetto ~ Allegro assai

 

ENCORE: Gabriel Grovlez L'almanach aux images No. 8: Petites litanies de Jésus

 

Programme Notes:

 

Elliott Carter (b.1908) is internationally recognized as one of the leading American voices in the classical music tradition. Twice winner of the Pulitzer Prize, he was the first composer to be awarded the United States National Medal of Arts. The 2008 celebration of his centenary year, during which he continued to compose new works, was one of the inspirations that led to the creation of this ensemble. The Canonic Suite, scored for four alto saxophones, was composed in 1945 and revised in 1981. A comparatively early work written in tonal style, the rhythmic spirit and intellectual rigour of his later works is already abundantly in evidence in this bold, effervescent piece. Each movement is a disciplined example of pure canon, the technique of strict imitation between lines that was used by composers of the Renaissance and Baroque times. The score defines the parameters of each canon succinctly: “The Fanfare is a canon in four parts at the unison; the Nocturne, a four-part canon in inversion (saxophone 2), retrograde (saxophone 3), and retrograde-inversion (saxophone 4); the Tarantella a four-part canon at the second above.” 

 

When composing O Vos, Liz Johnson (b.1964) also drew inspiration from early music, in particular the works of medieval composer Hildegard of Bingen. Written in 2001, the piece is for three alto saxophones and drawn from fragments of O vos felices radice. The modal lines evoke the brooding atmosphere of monastic chant very clearly. Liz Johnson is a composer, teacher and workshop leader.  Her richly diverse music ranges from luscious choral works to delicately layered and complex chamber music, with performances and BBC Radio 3 broadcasts by ensembles including the Fitzwilliam Quartet, the the Ionian Singers and BCMG. She teaches composition at Birmingham Conservatoire.

 

The Prelude and Fugue by J.S. Bach (1685-1750) come from the second book of the Well-Tempered Clavier, which was published in 1742. Both volumes of the WTC contain a paired prelude and fugue in each of the 24 major and minor keys. The work was written to explore the possibilities created by new forms of tuning keyboard instruments being developed at the time, which allowed composers new freedom to modulate to distantly related keys. More importantly, the two volumes of the work contain an astonishing compendium of compositions that succeed in demonstrating an unmatched mastery of musical counterpoint as well as a vivid, wide-ranging ability to conjure mood. This pair contrasts a lively prelude with a gentle, flowing fugue. This arrangement for saxophone quartet was done by the Australian-born composer Percy Grainger in 1943. Grainger was very fond of the saxophone, and in fact played the instrument himself: he spent the years 1917-18 as soprano saxophonist in an American military band, to which he had enlisted after the United States joined the allied cause in the First World War.

 

Remembrance, by Edward McGuire, focuses on memory as its subject. Originally composed for two oboes and cor anglais in 1992, it is played here on two soprano saxophones and alto saxophone. In the score, McGuire notes that both his parents had died in the previous two years, and this is part of a series of elegies composed at that time. This piece “makes a more abstract and general exploration of the feelings and meanings encompassed by its title. The opening, slow meditative refrain recurs throughout the piece, changing with each reappearance. In contrast, the sections of more rapid music grow in intensity but the piece also has its whimsical and playful moments; the overall feeling is one of striving for optimism.” Edward McGuire (b. 1948) studied composition at the Royal Academy of Music, London and then with the Swedish composer Ingvar Lidholm in Stockholm. His works have been regularly broadcast and major commissions have come from the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, the St Magnus Festival, and the Edinburgh International Festival, the Glasgow University McEwen Bequest, and the New Music Group of Scotland. McGuire also plays flute with, and writes for, the Scottish folk group The Whistlebinkies. He was the recipient of a British Composers Award in 2003 and a Creative Scotland Award in 2004.

 

Jan Dismas Zelenka (1679-1745) was a Czech contemporary of J.S. Bach, born in Bohemia, and trained in Prague and Vienna. He was a double-bass player in the court orchestra in Dresden for much of his life, but also had a large output of compositions which remained hidden from general performance because the Dresden court forbade any publication of them. Rediscovered in the mid-20th century, his cycle of six trio sonatas for oboes, bassoon, and continuo are now recognized as being among the most important wind chamber works of the Baroque. The Trio Sonata No. 1, arranged here for two soprano saxophones, baritone saxophone, and synthesizer, is one of his finest works. Each of the four movements is a glorious web of interweaving, echoing lines, lyricism, and monumental architecture.

 

Flotilla are a unique ensemble of saxophonists performing music with a variety of sound worlds: trios and quartets for saxophones, often in unusual combinations, and also including piano or synthesizer. A consort of saxophones, rather than a traditional saxophone quartet, Flotilla’s all-star cast brings together four highly respected instrumentalists with vast experience in saxophone chamber music, as well as strong individual profiles in solo, orchestral, and commercial music. They began working on this project in 2007, and released a CD recording on the Big Shed Music label in March 2009.  The ensemble’s poetic repertoire of multilayered compositions – by turns clever, thoughtful, vibrant, haunting, elegiac – is a meditation on melody with themes of reflection, echo, and memory at its centre. Their programmes evoke a strong sense of mirroring, not just between the musicians who are placed on an equal footing by the thread of contrapuntal writing which runs through much of their repertoire, but also between the modern and ancient as contemporary works draw upon a variety of antecedents ranging from liturgical polyphony to folk music.

 

After studying at Northwestern University (Chicago) with Frederick Hemke and at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama (London) with Stephen Trier, Kyle Horch made his London debut in 1989 on the Park Lane Group series. Since then he has performed as a soloist at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, Purcell Room, British and World Saxophone Congresses, and numerous other venues in this country and abroad. His two CD recordings on the Clarinet Classics label, ChamberSax and AngloSax, have received international praise from reviewers; he has also recorded John Carmichael’s Aria and Finale on ABC Classics, and the 2006-7 Grade 8 saxophone syllabus for the Associated Board. Kyle’s work as a freelance musician has involved him in performing across a wide range of orchestral, contemporary, chamber, and light music. He has worked with many well-known ensembles including the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, London Philharmonic, Royal Philharmonic, Royal Opera House, Philharmonia Orchestra, Bournemouth Symphony, London Musici, Birmingham Royal Ballet, Mistral and Paragon Saxophone Quartets, Counterpoise, and Piccadilly Dance Orchestra. He is saxophone professor at the Royal College of Music in London.

 

One of the finest of Britain’s younger generation of saxophonists, Naomi Sullivan studied at Chethams School, the Royal College of Music, and Northwestern University. She has won numerous awards and prizes in the UK, Europe, and the USA, including with the Countess of Munster Trust which supported her postgraduate studies in Chicago and with whom she is a regular performer on the Trust’s recital scheme. She is also a regular recitalist on the Live Music Now! scheme. Naomi is a member of the Paragon Saxophone Quartet, with whom she has appeared on three CD recordings, Tuning In, Les Quatuors, and Byrdland. She is also a member of Zephirus, which won the chamber music section at the Royal Over-Seas League competition in 2007. Other chamber and orchestral playing has included engagements with the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, Halle Orchestra, and Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra. She teaches saxophone at Birmingham Conservatoire and the Purcell School.

 

Born in 1963, Andrew Tweed studied clarinet and saxophone at Birmingham Conservatoire. Upon leaving his studies he joined the groundbreaking group Saxtet, which since 1988 has taken him all round the UK, Europe, three times to the USA and a six-week world tour in between TV and radio appearances. As a soloist, Andrew released his debut CD, Spiritualise, in 2005 on the Big Shed Music label. A versatile freelance musician, Andrew has also worked with the CBSO, Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, English Symphony Orchestra, Bournemouth Symphony Orchstra, London Musici (Rambert Dance Company), Theatre Alibi, Piccadilly Dance Orchestra, The Pasadena Roof Orchestra and The Syd Lawrence Orchestra as well as performing regularly with Britain’s premier accordionist, Karen Street. His compositions are published by Saxtet Publications and Boosey & Hawkes and appear on the Associated Board syllabus. He was Artistic Director of the 2005 British Saxophone Congress and endorses Keilwerth Saxophones. He teaches saxophone at Birmingham Conservatoire and Wells Cathedral School.

 

Alistair Parnell was a semi-finalist in the BBC Young Musician of the Year in 1984 and subsequently entered the Royal College of Music, London, where he studied saxophone with Stephen Trier and piano with David Ward. During his time there he won many prizes including the College Woodwind Prize and the Concerto Prize. He formed and led the Mistral Saxophone Quartet, which became one of the UK’s most successful saxophone ensembles and performed at the Purcell Room and several British Saxophone Congresses. In 1997 he released his first solo compact disc Going Solo which features Alistair playing saxophone, piano, keyboards and electronic wind instrument. He followed this with another solo recording, Winter Solstice, in 2005. Freelance work has included engagements with City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, the Tribune Saxophone Octet, the Equinox Sax Ensemble. Alistair is guest conductor of the Nottingham Symphonic Wind Orchestra, and he is Visiting Scholar for saxophone at Nottingham University.