SAXES IN SPADES
If you like an instrument that sings, play the saxophone. At its best it’s like the human voice.
Stan Getz
FOUR SMOOTH VOICES IN BRATTLEBORO
Quartets come in all flavors: vocal, string, woodwind, percussion. Sometimes, but less often, brass, which traditionally opts for a fivesome. Even guitar. But perhaps the silkiest and sexiest sound of all is that of a saxophone quartet.
The instrument, which itself comes in a slew of ranges and sizes, is a relative latecomer to the music scene, and was the creation of one Adolphe Sax, a Belgian instrument maker, in 1840. The instrument falls under the umbrella of the woodwinds, with a single-reed mouthpiece much like the clarinet.
Since its appearance, it has continued to live a double life on both the highbrow and lowbrow music scenes; many classical composers from Debussy and Prokofiev to Villa Lobos and Glazunov readily and unashamedly employed it in their compositions, and it has an extensive and growing repertoire that runs right from the Romantic era through to our own century.
But perhaps most seminal of all has been the saxophone’s star status in the world of jazz, where it is both ubiquitous and very nearly indispensable. The secret may lie in the sax’s ability to play the frequency edges of music with equal elan — it can blast the lid off a soundspace when steamy, or purr as softly as a kitten when dreamy, shifting almost instantly from one to the other. Such musical agility does not come quite as easily to almost any other instrument; while the clarinet has equal dexterity, it can’t vie with the saxophone where mega-voltage is concerned.
Anyway, the opportunity is at hand to hear the sound of four saxophonists in gear — this time on the classical side of the aisle, when the award-winning Asylum Quartet performs at the Brattleboro Music Center’s 2015-2016 Chamber Music Series in a concert on Friday, March 18 at the Centre Congregational Church at 7:30 p.m. The program will include works by György Ligeti, Claude Debussy and Antonin Dvorak.
The players adopted their name from Asylum Hill, the storied Hartford neighborhood, and are, in order of descending range: Joseph Abad, soprano saxophone, Tony Speranza, alto saxophone, Max Schwimmer, tenor saxophone and Andrew Barnhart, baritone saxophone. They met in 2011 as graduate students at the The Hartt School in West Hartford, Conn.
The ensemble received the Grand Prize at the 2014 International Chamber Music Ensemble Competition in Boston, becoming the first saxophone quartet to receive this honor. It has been lauded for “nonstop virtuoso skills” and “evocative, educational, and refreshing” concerts, with a repertoire that spans traditional, contemporary and globally-oriented repertoire.
Tickets are $30 for preferred seating and $20 general admission and can be purchased online at: www.bmcvt.org or by calling 802-257-4523. Tickets will also be available at the door.
A BRAHMS TRIO FEST AT SMITH
Music In Deerfield and the Smith College Music Department will be presenting the Latitude 41 Trio performing the complete three piano trios by Johannes Brahms on Sunday, March 20, at 4 p.m. in Sweeney Concert Hall, Sage Hall, Smith College, Northampton. The concert will be preceded at 3 p.m. by Classical Conversations, featuring the members of the Trio in conversation with Music in Deerfield’s John Montanari, fielding questions from the audience.
The piano trio — a violin, cello, piano threesome — emerged in the late 18th century as a showcase for the newest incarnation of pianoforte, rather like the historical equivalent of the television at the time, which was to be found in many homes of the middle class. At first, piano trios tended to be simple affairs designed to be accessible to talented amateurs. But once Beethoven, Schubert, Mendelssohn, Schumann and others had a crack at them, the genre became a showcase for instrumental virtuosity. The program opens with the sunny Trio in C Major, Op. 87, completed in 1882, followed by the dramatic Trio in C Minor, Op. 101, composed four years later. The concert concludes with the Trio in B Major, Op. 8, composed in 1854, revised in 1889, which is considered one of the glories of the piano trio genre.
Violinist Livia Sohn, cellist Luigi Piovano, and pianist Bernadene Blaha, all accomplished soloists, joined forces to create Latitude 41 in 2009, as a result of previous musical collaborations and love of chamber music. Their name derives from the latitude of the their first performance venue in Rhode Island, coincidentally also the latitude of cellist Luigi Piovano’s home in Rome, Italy.
Our last concert in Music In Deerfield’s 2015-2016 Smith College season will be the mother-son duo of Miriam Fried and Jonathan Biss performing three Beethoven Sonatas for Violin and Piano on Saturday, May 7.
Tickets purchased in advance are $35 for adults, $5 for students under 18, $10 for accompanying adults and students 18 and over. At the door, tickets are $38, $5 for students under 18, $10 for accompanying adults and students 18 and over. Venues are handicapped accessible. Tickets may be ordered at (413) 586-0458, by mail at P.O. Box 60424, Florence, MA 01062, or on the web at www.musicindeerfield.org
A SINGLE REFLECTIVE VOICE IN DEERFIELD
Jooyoung Kim, a pianist originally from South Korea, will be performing music by J. S. Bach, Frederic Chopin, and Franz Liszt at the forthcoming Brick Church Music Series in its fourth offering of the 2015-2016 season on Sunday, March 13. at 3 p.m., at The First Church of Deerfield, 71 Old Main Street, Deerfield. This is a fundraiser for the church with a suggested donation of $10 at the door. There will be a reception in the Caswell Library at Deerfield Academy following the concert.
Kim is a sensitive, rather than flashy artist, one whom can be seen visibly contemplating her music as she gives it birth; she will be playing Bach’s cantata-derived “Sheep May Safely Graze,” Sonata No. 2 in B-flat minor, Op.35, by Frederic Chopin, Nocturne Op. 186, No. 6, by Johann Wenzel Kalliwoda, with guest violist, Joon Ok Bae and the virtuosic variations, “Grandes Etudes de Paganini” by Franz Liszt.
An author and composer, columnist Joseph Marcello of Northfield focuses on music and theater. He can be reached at josephmarcello@verizon.net.