The
growth of the repertoire for saxophone quartet has been
very striking in the last twenty or thirty years. Building
on early quartets such as those by Florent Schmitt, Alexander
Glazunov, Jean Francaix and (characteristically out on
a limb) Henry Cowell, many enterprising quartets have commissioned,
or more informally ‘stimulated’, the creation of quartets.
Examples include those by such as Gordon Jacob, Peter Racine
Fricker and Richard Rodney Bennett or – illustrative of
the form’s stylistic flexibility – works for saxophone
quartet by, for example, Philip Glass, Louis Andriessen
(
Facing Death), Joby Talbot (
Blue Cell),
Lukas Foss, Charles Wuorinen, Iannis Xenakis (
XAS),
Michael Torke (
July) and Terry Riley (
Chanting
the Light of Foresight). Yet it can’t really be said
that a ‘canon’ has yet been formed; perhaps it is simply
too early. It will be fascinating to follow future developments.
It
is into such a context that this debut CD by the Veya Saxophone
Quartet makes its way. The Veya Quartet was formed in 2000
at the Royal Northern College of Music; just as the Apollo
Saxophone Quartet were in 1985. There are interesting details
about the Veya on their
website.
On
this CD they play three works which must be strong candidates
for a British ‘canon’ of music for saxophone quartet – Gabriel
Jackson’s
Rhythm and Blues, John Caskin’s
Nearly
Distant and Graham Fitkin’s
Stub, two works
composed by members of the quartet – Simon Murray’s
Pierre
Musicale and Mark White’s
New Work, along with
the
Three Improvisations of Barry Russell.
Jackson’s
Rhythm
and Blues was commissioned by Andrew Gottschalk and
the Delta Saxophone Quartet. It’s as full of jazz inflections
as its title would lead one to expect, and each of the
instruments is foregrounded in turn – the sections for
solo baritone are particularly effective - in a piece
which runs through a considerable range of moods, before
coming to a quietly meditative conclusion. There’s some
fine work here from the quartet, both as soloists and
as an ensemble (not least in some bagpipe-like passages!).
John Casken’s
Nearly Distant draws on an earlier
work –
Distant Variations – written for saxophone
quartet and wind orchestra, but radically reshapes the
music. This quartet work was premiered by the Apollo
Saxophone Quartet; it is marked by the rhythmic vivacity
and demanding interplay of most of its ensemble passages,
and by the contrasting passages of gentler lyricism.
The ensemble work is very well handled, but some of the
quiet passages might perhaps have been a little more
expressive. Graham Fitkin’s
Stub (another work
commissioned by the Delta Quartet) has an insistent momentum
which can sound almost mechanical, but which gets a very ‘human’ treatment
here. This is one of the stand-out performances on the
CD.
Among
the less established pieces, Barry Russell’s
Three Improvisations are
witty and elegant miniatures, and Simon Murray’s Pierre
Musicale sets one of the prose poems from the 1912 collection –
Stčles -
by that remarkable man Victor Segalen, novelist, archaeologist,
poet and friend of Debussy and Gide. The poems of Stčles
have a strange, almost hieratic impersonality about them,
like elliptical and obscure inscriptions on ancient stones,
and Murray’s setting, sung with a kind of distanced grandeur
by Alexandra Tiffin, captures something of the poem’s quality,
even if the musical images of the poem seem to cry out
for a greater variety of sounds and textures than a saxophone
quartet can provide. Using a pre-recorded backing tape,
Mark White’s
New Work is a generally rather quiet
piece, which creates and explores some attractive and rich
textures of sound in a pleasant, if rather meandering,
fashion. Though all have their interest, perhaps no one
of these three works is likely to gain admittance to the ‘canon’ as
it establishes itself.
The
booklet notes are rather brief and somewhat short on dates
- I have supplemented them, where I could, above. Sadly,
the booklet provides no text of Segalen’s beautiful poem
- those interested might like to know that a text, with
English translation, is included in
French Poetry, 1820-1950,
Penguin Classics, 1990, edited by William Rees.
Interesting
repertoire, played very competently, if sometimes without
quite the highest flair or certainty of vision. But such
qualities will surely come. On the evidence of this CD,
saxophone quartets such as the Delta and the Apollo will
soon have a serious rival.
Glyn Pursglove
Veya Saxophone
Quartet: Mark White (soprano saxophone), Fiona Astbury
(alto saxophone), Jenny Lyons (tenor saxophone),
Simon Murray (baritone saxophone); * Alexandra Tiffin (mezzo) 
