Release Date: 12 January 1999
Label: Naxos - Nxc / Naxos Classics
Packaging Type: Jewel Case
No of Units: 1
Barcode: 636943478424
Genres: Classical
Composer/Series: Music for Saxophone and Orchestra
Description
Music for Saxophoneand OrchestraThe saxophone was developed in Paris in the 1840s by Adolphe Sax, amember of the instrument-manufacturing Sax family established in Brussels. Itwas natural that the new instrument would have a particular appeal to Frenchcomposers and it found an early place in French military bands, graduallymaking an appearance in French opera for special purposes of orchestralcolouring. In America the saxophone proved of use to Sousa in the l890s, beforebecoming an essential element in jazz and in swing bands.An astonishingly prolific composer, Darius Milhaud was born in 1892 inAix-en-Provence into a prosperous Jewish family. Trained at the ParisConservatoire as a pupil of Leroux, Gedalge, Dukas and Widor, he enjoyed closefriendship with a number of painters and writers. Among the latter Paul Claudelassumed some importance in his life, particularly when Milhaud was able in 1916to accompany him to Brazil, employed nominally as Claudel's secretary at theFrench embassy. Milhaud's earliest music for the theatre was for plays byClaudel. Now their association introduced a new influence, the music of Brazil.Throughout his life Milhaud travelled widely, obliged, with the Germanoccupation of France, to take temporary refuge in the United States of America.In 1947 he was able to return home, but maintained his teaching connection withAmerica in spite of the increasingly paralyzing effects of rheumatoidarthritis, from which he suffered for many years.Among Milhaud's most popular music is the suite known as Scaramouche,drawn from incidental music written in 1937 for a production of achildren's play by Vildrac based on Moli?¿re's Le medicin volant, inwhich the figure from the Italian comedy, renamed by Moli?¿re Sganarelle, appearsas a pretend Italian doctor, of transparent incompetence, to help his master'slove intrigues. The original Italian play involved Scaramouche himself in thisrole. The new version of the play was staged at the The?ótre Scaramouche inParis in May 1937. The witty music by Milhaud opens with a lively movement thatmakes some use of a tune better known to the English as 'Ten green bottles,hanging on the wall'. The second movement has more romantic pretentious,leading to a final excursion to South America.Glazunov was a pupil of Rimsky-Korsakov, with whom he collaborated inthe completion of compositions left unfinished by Borodin. He won early favourwith Balakirev, self-appointed mentor of a group of composers devoted to thecause of Russian musical nationalism but Balakirev's influence was soonreplaced by that of Belyayev. After the political disturbances of 1905 in St.Petersburg, Glazunov was elected director of the Conservatory, a position heretained even after 1928 when he settled in Paris. As a composer, Glazunovcombines national inspiration with the technical musical accomplishment ofprofessional Russian musicians of his generation. His particular skill inorchestration is admirably shown in the Saxophone Concerto, a sig
Tracklisting
Dariia Lytvishko
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra; Marin Alsop
Alice Di Piazza; Basel Sinfonietta; NDR Bigband; Titus Engel
Anna Alas i Jove; Miquel Villalba
David Childs; Black Dyke Band; Nicholas Childs
Yaqi Yang; Margarita Parsamyan; Robynne Redmon; Minghao Liu; Frank Ragsdale; Kim Josephson; Kevin S
Vilmos Csikos; Olivier Lechardeur; Manon Lamaison
Tomas Cotik; Martingale Ensemble; Ken Selden
