Saxophone Practi e

The product of several concurrent decades of development and devotion, the combined musicality on Planetary, is something to be cherished. Those parts that are clearly being read, like Parallel Construction #2 are read flawlessly…

Things that don't fit neatly into pigeonholes have always had a hard time, and so it has been with the saxophone; Hoffnung's string-tuba would have had very big problems. Sax was a tireless inventor: his plans for a monster canon, and a device for playing loud music from Parisian high ground never bore fruit, but the former anticipated Saddam Hussein and the latter, scaled down, is with us as Muzak. Though the saxophone has never found a regular place in the orchestra it has nevertheless captured the interest of a long line of composers; a square peg doesn't need to fit into any orchestral round hole when it is centre-stage.

Presenting this project, the Milano Saxophone Quartet leads the public through a real Metamorphosis. The audience realizes the quartet’s sound-transformation, which shows, through the performance and the different styles, one of its main idiomatic characteristics i.e. the flexibility.