This is an engaging
oddity of real charm and, in places,
genuine beauty. Not recommended for
the more unbending or puritanical authenticist,
the rest of us can enjoy the delightful
improbability of what it sets out to
do, and how well it does it.
The Copenhagen Saxophone
Quartet was founded in 1998; there have
been a few changes of personnel, through
which the Quartet has maintained its
commitment to contemporary music – playing
work by composers such as Xenakis and
Per Nørgård, Cage and Ligeti.
Commissions have included work by the
Danish composers Anders Brødsgaard,
Simon Christensen and Svend Hvidtfelt-Nielsen.
But they have also always shown an interest
in playing arrangements of music originally
written for rather different instrumental
forces – there are works by Busoni,
Mendelssohn and Dvorak in their repertoire.
And a substantial number of Baroque
works. Their third CD, indeed, was devoted
to arrangements of sonatas by Domenico
Scarlatti (ClassicO classcd 489), on
some of which they were joined by the
recorder player Michala Petri. Now they
turn their attentions to a more varied
programme of Baroque music, on which
they are joined by the fine young tenor
Mathias Hedegaard and, playing Baroque
organ, by Viggo Mangor.
The results are consistently
enjoyable. In Corelli’s ‘Christmas Concerto’,
the vivace opening of the first movement
and the suspensions of the slow movement
work equally well in this arrangement
for four saxophones and the closing
pastorale is winningly beautiful. One
has, of course, to be willing to forget
the familiar sounds of a famous piece,
but the quality of both arrangement
and playing does much to facilitate
– and reward – such a ‘forgetting’.
Pergolesi’s chamber
cantata Orfeo gets an attractive
vocal interpretation by Hedegaard (texts
and English translations of all the
vocal tracks are provided), not least
in the poignancy of ‘O d’Euridice’,
in which Charlotte Anderssen’s arrangement
captures much of the power and beauty
of the original writing for strings
and continuo.
The same undemonstrative,
intelligently qualified fidelity is
evident in Torben Snekkestad’s arrangements
from Alessandro Scarlatti. Some of the
individual movements here, such as the
central grave of the second Concerto
Grosso are altogether exquisite – these
arrangements are not merely parasitic,
they throw new light on the originals,
they are works which evidence both originality
and respect.
There is a fitting
climax to the disc in Charlotte Andersson’s
beautiful arrangement of Pergolesi’s
Salve Regina, in which Mathias
Hedegaard gives an affecting and compelling
performance – so much so that one quite
forgets the ‘oddity’ of the instrumental
accompaniment. Indeed the vocal qualities
of the supporting quartet of saxophones
give to the piece an emotional intensity
which, if not greater than that of the
original, might perhaps be thought to
be more direct, more immediately accessible
to modern ears not fully attuned to
the idioms of the baroque.
Though what the Copenhagen
Saxophone Quartet is doing is significantly
different, this CD may well appeal not
only to undogmatic admirers of the baroque,
but also to those who have enjoyed creations
such as the John Surman-Stephen Stubbs-John
Potter recording of Dowland (ECM New
Series 1803) or the Officium
and Mnemosyne of Jan Garbarek
and the Hilliard Ensemble (ECM New Series
1525 and ECM New Series 1700). In truth,
however, what the Copenhagen Saxophone
Quartet are doing is rather less radical
and, in some ways, musically more substantial.
Glyn Pursglove
for
details
Copenhagen Saxophone Quartet: Torben Snekkestad
(soprano saxophone), Maret Petersen (alto
saxophone), Jeanette Balland (tenor saxophone);
Charlotte Andersson (baritone saxophone);
Mathias Hedegaard (tenor); Viggo Mangor
(organ) 
