Jeremiah Clarke’s Trumpet
Tune on track 13 snapped me out
of the stupor into which I had drifted
during the previous dozen. At this point
the first and last notes of the sopranino
saxophone sounded more like the last
cries of a chicken being garrotted than
a musical instrument. The ‘V’ after
the words ‘Saxophone and Organ’ in this
disc’s title is the Roman numeral five,
so the rather worrying implication is
that there are four more out there.
If anyone has them, then you might as
well be hung for a sheep as a lamb and
go for this fifth one. The list of works
on the 21 tracks says it all; they are
all tunes we know and love, but surely
not Land of hope and glory in
the hands of these two instruments?
Regrettably yes, and a lot more besides
perishes in this massacre by arrangement,
not least Bach who is singled out for
no less than half a dozen. What on earth
did he do to deserve this? Prepare thyself
Zion indeed, and so should any unsuspecting
listener. There is a brain-numbing moderato
tempo throughout, relieved just occasionally
by a brisker speed (J.S.B’s Badinerie
from his flute suite for example), but
worse is the highly limited colour achieved
by this combination, even though three
types of saxophone (alto, soprano and
sopranino) and various organ registrations
are used in an endeavour to do so. The
title ‘Rêveries’ is a misnomer,
it should be ‘Cauchemars’.
Christopher Fifield
Jean-Pierre
Rorive (soprano saxophone) 
