 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
||||||||||
 |
 |
 |
|
||||||||
 |
 |
|
|||||||||
 |
 |
|
|||||||||
 |
|
||||||||||
 |
 |
 |
|
||||||||
 |
 |
 |
|
||||||||
 |
 |
 |
|
||||||||
 |
|
||||||||||
 |
 |
 |
|
||||||||
 |
|
||||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
 |
|
|||
 |
 |
 |
|
||
 |
 |
|
|||
 |
|
||||
REVIEW: Classical New Jersey Society Journal
Vintage Mouthpieces
New Jersey Saxophone Quartet concludes Mt. Fern Season
Saturday, June 5
New Jersey Saxophone Ensemble: Frederick Davis (soprano saxophone), Avi Goldrosen (alto saxophone), James Garde (tenor saxophone), Paul Egan-Larsen (baritone saxophone). Orlando Gibbon's Fantazia, arranged by Fred Hemke; Erland von Koch's Cantilena e Vivo; Caryl Florio's Quartette (Allegro de Concert); David Noon's Coda; J. S. Bach's "Badinerie" from Orchestral Suite No. 2 in B Minor, arranged by Joseph Powell; "Scott Joplin Portrait," arranged by Bill Holcombe; J. S. Bach's Prelude and Fugue No. 6, arranged by Stephen Anthenien; Carl Anton Wirth's Divisions in Denim; George Gershwin's American in Paris, arranged by Fred Hemke; George and Ira Gershwin's Fascinating Rhythm, arranged by Lennie Niehaus. Mt. Fern United Methodist Church, Randolph.
By Elaine Strauss
The New Jersey Saxophone Ensemble wound up the first ever five-concert Mt. Fern United Methodist Church season with a feel-good program selected from four centuries worth of music. The earliest piece came from Orlando Gibbons, who died in 1625, 60 years before J.S. Bach was born. The most recent pieces were by living composers. Original music for saxophone was presented along with a selection of deftly-constructed and cleanly-played transcriptions. One felt that one was in good hands for the evening as the serene frame of authority surrounded even the raciest music.
The one melancholy item, Erland von Koch's Cantilena, emphasized the upbeat quality of the rest of the evening. The ensemble performed it skillfully with vivid gloom; it was an ideal foil for the Vivo with which the composer coupled it.
The sunniness of the programming was enhanced by playing noteworthy for its cleanness and clarity. Intonation was dead on target, entrances and exits were precise, dynamics were finely controlled, and the balance among the instruments was poised and purposeful. This foursome is in the running for perfection, not only because of their technical mastery, but also because of their musical adroitness.
The sound of the group is both warm and transparent. Soprano saxophonist Frederick Davis uses an instrument from the early 1920s with a curved bell, rather than the standard clarinet-shaped soprano saxophone. The curve, he says, results in a dark and mellow sound that he considers worth having. It also results in pitch inconsistencies that he has to factor into his playing. To magnify the warm sound Davis uses a mouthpiece from the 1920s. Alto saxophonist Avi Goldrosen, tenor James Garde, and baritone Paul Egan-Larsen use mouthpieces of an old design to match Davis's sound. While the group is capable of producing the languid sonorities most often associated with the saxophone, they expand the signature timbre of the instrument by their nimbleness and their tasteful use of non-legato articulations.
The program included one of the first original pieces for saxophone, an instrument born shortly before 1850, too late for the Viennese classical composers to produce any literature for it.
Caryl Florio's Quartette, written in 1979, gives a saxophone quartet an opportunity to purvey the musical fare common to older musical instruments. The piece contains lyrical moments, basks in emotion, employs syncopation, and includes a contrapuntal section. Goldrosen handled the fat alto saxophone part flawlessly. But Florio was democratic enough to furnish each participant with a chance to solo. He also gave the group a chance to show that they could play in perfect unison, matching pitches and attacks.
The works by living composers showed the ensemble in various moods. David Noon's Coda was a kind of Flight of the Bumblebee for saxophones. Noon, who is currently on the faculty of the Manhattan School of Music, had the virtuoso instruments flying in formation. Carl Anton Wirth's Divisions in Denim, which consists of five movements, each of which corresponds to a brief poem, was written for the composer's children. The poems were read by Ed Daniels, who organized the concert series at the church. The pieces evoked the change of seasons in rural New England.
The Gibbon and Bach transcriptions furnished a chance to rethink pieces that originated in different instrumental contexts. A bonus not listed on the program was the performance of the Sarabande from Bach's English Suite No. 2 while the plate was passed for a free-will offering. Although as a pianist I know the Sarabande, I failed to identify it in its transcribed form, and had to ask Davis for help. The resetting of pieces for instruments other than the original ones often creates an intriguing disguise that provides a new perspective on the composition. It's like photographing the Empire State Building from the top, instead of from the side.
