Phono Suecia continues
to chart contemporary courses with aplomb
and conviction. Not only that but they
do so quickly – many of these works
for the adventuresome Stockholm Saxophone
Quartet were written in the last five
or six years. A few do date from the
late 1980s and one, from the senior
composer here, Erland von Koch, dates
from 1938 and his studies in Germany.
So welcome to the Quartet’s distinctive
sound world and to the satellite of
composers who have written for it or
have been inspired by it or for whom
it has proved a committed medium.
The range of sonorities,
colours and rhythms here is outstanding.
Not all the works last long enough to
develop but then many are, as the disc’s
title proclaims, in the Encore category
and make for concise, thoughtful, often
whimsical listening. The blend of saxophones
obviously contributes much as does the
fearless gusto of the performers. Nelson’s
Full Throttle is Nymanesque whilst Feiler’s
Ki (he was born in Israel) explores
some Rabbinic chanting over deftly coloured
and conjured organ sonorities. The saxophone
quartet medium can encourage a catholicity
of sonorities – try Bohlin, whose sometimes
abrasive and guttural squawks are ear-cleansing
in the extreme. Karin Rehnqvist conjures
some fascinating textures in the chorale-like
Rädda mig ur dyn. The most
"old fashioned" is the Ingvar
Karkoff, a full, rich arrangement of
a Greek folk-tune and that element of
the folk strain runs throughout the
disc with Jeverud for example utilising
a Balkan tune for his very jazz-orientated
Piece in Colours of Autumn, complete
with some raucous "solos."
The recitation of Eva Runefelt’s poems
in Förare’s Three Poems
is very much in the background and adds
another "voice" to the ensemble,
one that explores the sparse reserve
of the poems.
There are plenty of
rhythmic diversions here – from the
tango of Mellnäs and von Koch’s
(originally for violin and piano) fun-packed
Dance through Melin’s brief but incident
rich Variations. Simmerud’s Soli, for
speaker and quartet, put me in mind
of Eight Songs for a Mad King with its
interior monologues and sense of unsettling
apartness. But as often as not the group
mines a rich chorale strain evident
in a number of these works, well exemplified
by Morthenson’s Hymn – beautifully harmonised.
There’s plenty of variety
here – pugnacious, hymnal, jazz-inflected,
morose. The playing is superlative (and
the recording is top notch) and whilst
not everything will compel nothing outstays
its welcome.
Jonathan Woolf