Par HARRIS PAUL / CALLAND B.. Premier répertoire pour Saxophone Alto ' est une combinaison de pièces originales et arrangements imaginatives soigneusement sélectionnés et écrit pour le Grade 1-4 joueur qu'il y a quelque chose ici pour chaque occasion ! Paul Harris et Beverley Calland ont mis en commun leur richesse d'expérience pour mettre sur pied cette collection variée et stimulante./ Recueil / Saxophone Alto et Piano

Piano Reduction including solo part. Par DENISOV EDISON. The catalogue of Edison Denisov's works includes 16 concertos. It was a genre to which he returned time and again throughout his life, from the Concerto for Cello and Orchestra of 1972 to the Double Concerto for Flute, Clarinet and Orchestra of 1996. In Denisov's music the role of the soloist, or rather the protagonist, is extraordinarily important, not so much for its virtuosity as for its confessional character. The solo part is a monologue distinguished by poetic diction and a very personal message from the composer. The dramaturgical conception of the Concerto for Saxophone and Orchestra, a reworking of the Viola Concerto of 1986, draws on traditional sonata form, thereby reaffirming the ubiquitous classicism in Denisov's thought. In this late work, we find all the typical features of his style: sinuous melodic lines layered into dense contrapuntal textures, and an interplay of orchestral colours, with pure sonorities contrasting with complex mixtures of sounds. It is a perfect dramaturgy that governs the evolution of the music to the very end. The first movement assumes the role of a sonata-allegro, with the standard formal sections of exposition, development, recapitulation and coda. The second movement is an Adagio for strings. The third takes the form of a little contrasting intermezzo that introduces both new thematic material and a new range of colours. Here tunefulness gives way to pointillism enriched with sonic effects. The only movement with a virtuosic solo part, its nervousness and inner tension set it worlds apart from the second and fourth movements that surround it. The fourth movement assumes the traditional form of a final set of variations. It is the dramaturgical and semantic heart of the concerto. The theme of the variations is Franz Schubert's Impromptu in B-flat major, op. 142, which in this case is 'born' from the celesta as the product of a dodecaphonic string cluster. This finale represents Denisov's homage to his great mentor, Schubert's music being for him a symbol of eternal and universal beauty. 'The attentive listener', Denisov stressed, 'will recognise that the Impromptu theme is already suggested very slowly in the course of the three preceding movements, not only thematically, but also psychologically. That's what makes the appearance of the Schubert theme sound so natural.' The variations relate to the variation genre less in their form than in their spiritual and conceptual metamorphoses. It is, one might say, 'music round about Schubert'. (Ekaterina Kouprovskaia-Denisova)/ Répertoire / Saxophone Alto et Piano

Par SCHWARTZ JAY . From the composer: “I composed Music for Saxophone and Piano for Harry Kinrose White in 1992. It is an early attempt in my work at magnifying the barriers between sound and silence, exploring the extreme ranges of pianissimo sounds in the saxophone that seem to appear without recognizable transition out of nothing. Glissandi, sliding tones, have always fascinated me, and in this piece I applied for the first time my ideas about pitch slides in a composition. These two qualities - the absence of a recognizable boundary between soft and inaudible sound, and the absence of a stationary pitch by employing glissandi - were soon to become something of a basis of my compositional aesthetic for many years. It was in Music for Saxophone and Piano that these ideas seem to have first germinated. The architecture of this piece employs a simple binary form, but the halves are stylistically diametrically opposed, creating a dialectical pair, the serene and elegiac character of the second half being born out of the high point and cathartic event of the first half. In this architectural formula new and unexpected material is catalyzed by the long arch of the opening material reaching a breaking point.” For advanced players./ Recueil / Saxophone Alto et Piano

Game Over pour saxophone alto (ou cor en mi bémol) et accompagnement de piano est une composition de caractère vif et enjoué. La partie solo présente une étendue relativement limitée d'une octave et demie. C'est pourquoi Game Over est une pièce particulièrement adaptée aux jeunes élèves, à jouer en audition ou comme répertoire d'examen. Son effet est encore rehaussé par un accompagnement de piano rythmique et attractif. Jan Hadermann a dédié cette 'uvre à son petit-fils.