Aaron COPLAND (1900-1990)
Quiet City (1939, adapted by Christopher Brellochs, 2007) [13:39]
Leo ORNSTEIN (1893-2002)
Ballade (1955) [3:59]
Robert ALDRIDGE (b.1954)
Sound Moves Blues (1999) [10:30]
Walter S. HARTLEY (b.1927)
Lyric Suite (1993) [8:42]
Lawson LUNDE (b.1935)
Sonata for soprano saxophone and piano (Alpine) Op.37 (1970) [8:47]
Seymour BARAB (b.1921)
Suite for trumpet, alto saxophone and piano (1996) [13:01]
Christopher Brellochs (saxophone): Paul Cohen (saxophone): Donald Batchelder
(trumpet): Mitchell Kriegel (clarinet and bass clarinet); Richard Clarke (viola);
Lois Anderson (piano): Allison Brewster Franzetti (piano)
rec. July-August, 2010, Purchase College Performing Arts Center Recital Hall;
Oktaven Audio, Yonkers, NY; Lyric Suite rec. June 2005, Town Hall, NY
DORIAN SONO LUMINUS DSL-92135 [58:38]
A changing personnel of musicians has constructed an all-American programme
of twentieth century music revolving around the saxophone. It’s usually
for the alto - as in Copland’s Quiet City, Leo Ornstein’s
Ballade, Robert Aldridge’s Sound Moves Blues, and Seymour
Barb’s Suite - but one composer has designated the soprano and that’s
Lawson Lunde. Two saxophonists share the burden, though Christopher Brellochs
takes top billing, and Paul Cohen must make do with an under-spot, thus ‘…with
Paul Cohen’, and smaller font size too.
Quiet City was an Irwin Shaw play that never made it to opening night.
Copland wrote the instrumental music in 1939 but then recycled some of it
for the work of the same name for trumpet, cor anglais and string orchestra;
he also used some in Our Town. What we have in this disc is a premiere
recording of the unpublished score with intervention limited to the organisation
of the material into a concert form. According to the helpful booklet note
joint-authored by Brellochs and Cohen - it was the latter, in fact, who sent
the score to Brellochs - there are some emendations to the score, involving
moving melodies from the trumpet and removing the saxophonist doubling on
the clarinet.
The piece lasts around thirteen and a half minutes, and is written for trumpet,
clarinet and bass clarinet, alto saxophone and piano. It opens with edgy trumpet
fanfares, and then soon dissolves into a rather beautiful melody with delicious
harmonies, somewhat reminiscent of Appalachian Spring. Copland also
throws in some quirky rhythmic motives and a waltz passage, as well as a lonesome
solo line for the saxophone. This is a very welcome restoration, finely played.
I hope it’s taken up by curious ensembles.
Ornstein’s pretty little Ballade (1955) for alto and piano flows
charmingly with a quicker central section embedded. Robert Aldridge’s
Sound Moves Blues dates from 1999, and is crafted for clarinet, alto
sax and piano - bar the Hartley piece, the hardworking pianist is Allison
Brewster Franzetti. There’s a call-to-attention bluesy confidence to
Aldridge’s writing, as the piano urges on the alto until the alto and
clarinet riff over its rolling insinuating challenges. Walter Hartley’s
Lyric Suite (1993) is for tenor sax, viola and piano and shows refined
lyricism, and a good sense of contrast between the taut Nocturne and
the fun Gigue. I can’t hear the Scherzino as ‘gritty’,
as the notes suggest (it’s actually rather attractive), nor do I really
hear any Bartók - maybe some Ravel. Lunde’s two-movement Sonata
was originally only a one-movement piece written for flute. He expanded it
for soprano sax and it’s tasteful, tuneful and has a breezy finale.
Finally we have Seymour Barab’s Suite for trumpet, alto and piano. This
has nice dialogues and exchanges, jaunty tunes, excellent dovetailing of themes
and overlapping voices. It’s like a sort of vernacular Martinů
in places, but without the motor rhythms.
Saxophonic Americana casts its net widely here. There’s nothing for
avant-gardists, but if you like great tunes, bluesy excursions and limpid
romanticism, then lend an ear.
Jonathan Woolf
Great tunes, bluesy excursions and limpid romanticism.