It was and it is so amazing to be part of this FAMILY! Thanks to Artist in Residence Harriet Krijgh for invitation and to all inspiring musicians: Matthias Schorn – clarinet, Emmanuel Tjeknavorian – violin, Magda Amara – piano and Martynas Levickis – accordion, with whom we shared the stage.
We feel honored to be part of this family! Thank you.
#wearefamily
Dear friends,
we can’t wait to perform new concerto for saxophone quartet and orchestra by Daniel Schnyder on July 4th 2019 in Festspielhaus Erl.
More informations about the concert HERE
Daniel Schnyder wrote about the new concerto:
My Concerto for Saxophone Quartet and Orchestra is divided into three movements which are connected by free cadenzas. The first movement is rather pastoral in nature and reflects the origin of the saxophone in French music. In his famous “Bolero” and “Pictures at an Exhibition”, Ravel brought the saxophone to the ears of the concert audience, listening to the lyrical, romantic and at the same time Dionysian side of the instrument. As we all know, at the same time as Ravel was writing his music, the saxophone became the main instrument of jazz, the new music of that time on the other side of the Atlantic. Without a saxophone, without John Coltrane, Charlie Parker and Lester Young, a jazz story is unthinkable. In the music of Gershwin and Ravel these worlds, Europe and America, have met and complemented each other. This transatlantic connection has conquered the instrument a place in the concert hall. Of course, the repertoire is still very young and small compared to violin and piano, and in some cases not properly composed for the instrument. Therefore it was a great chance and a favourite project for me to compose this concerto. I am a saxophonist myself, and both jazz and classical music are in my heart, I am equally at home in both worlds. So in the first movement you hear how these sounds, like the meeting of Ravel and Gershwin in Paris, inspire each other. This, in turn, is in perfect harmony with the “Concerto for Orchestra”, which Bartók wrote in America under the influence of all the new “sounds” and which, like his sixth string quartet, clearly contains elements influenced by jazz. So for me this is a dream program: it reflects the holistic sound of the 20th century, where music is uncompromisingly at the centre and the exclusions that have poisoned our music world play no role. The second movement consequently plays around the jazz ballad, the American songbook, and uses the extended ramified harmonics, which were taken over from the late romantic period into jazz. The saxophone is probably the woodwind instrument that comes closest to the human voice. This is why the saxophone became the ballad instrument in jazz, at least since Coleman Hawkin’s famous “Body and Soul” solo, which shook the musical world, the world of “savants”. The last movement is a kind of oxymoron, a musical utopia! On one side is R&B music, the music of the 70s and 80s, funk music, on the other the traditional Europe, fugue and counterpoint. These are two worlds that don’t really “belong” together. But this idea came to me in my sleep how I could connect the world of Bruckner or rather Buxtehude, the music of repetition fugues, reversals, enlargements, reflections and splits with the funk music of a James Brown. The result is a highly explosive mixture of accumulated musical energy. The baritone saxophone rattles here in a way that no traditional orchestral instrument can do, and the presence and sound dynamic of the saxophone quartet shows all its unique quality in the combination of the elements mentioned above and in its inherent power to assert itself against a large orchestra. I hope that you, dear audience, enjoy this work and that I can surprise you again and again, and that you fall in love with the saxophone, this young instrument.
More about Schnyder´s new composition HERE
We are happy to be part of this festival and teach & share our experiences about chamber music.
See you in Ruse!
Last week we have been invited to play a concert at Rostropovich festival in Baku/ Azeirbaijan. Absolutely a dream invitation for me, as he is my hero and ispiration since I can remember. Happiness!
Only one day later we’ve got a message from presenter (great one!!) and our office that we are not allowed to enter the land of Azeirbaijan since someone of us is from Armenia and has armenian passport. Not only this.- in case of trying to enter the land to play the concert, he has to go directly to the police.- in worst case to prison. I know political problem beetwen countries which is 100 years old but what a shame.- 21st century. So we had to cancel the concert. And it is not about the concert…! At the moment I am writing this, I am having italian food with a glass of german wine; listening french music from american artist on a japanese telephone!
What the f**k? Let us just do music and think about what is happening! For democracy and human rights! What kind of world will stay after us?!!
Februar 14, 2019 – 5:00 pm – 9:00 pm
SPARK, DIE KLASSISCHE BAND
SIGNUM SAXOPHONE QUARTET
MILJENKO TURK Bariton
FELIX KLIESER Horn
ANNIKA TREUTLER Klavier
SCHÜLERINNEN UND SCHÜLER FRANKFURTER SCHULEN Moderation
Ist in der Instrumentalmusik von einem Quartett die Rede, so geht es fast immer um Streicher. Aber da gibt es noch mehr, wie ein Konzert der Dresdner Musifestspiele zeigte.
Von Torsten Kohlschein erschienen am 29.05.2018 in “FREIE PRESSE”
Dresden. Warum gilt das Saxofon eigentlich als Holzblasinstrument? Sieht doch jeder, dass das Ding aus Blech ist! – So berechtigt die Frage, so einfach die Antwort. Es geht in diesem Fall nicht darum, woraus das Instrument ist, sondern was den Ton erzeugt. Und das ist beim Saxofon ein ins Mundstück gespanntes angeschliffenes Blatt aus Schilfrohr, für dessen beim Anblasen entstehende Schwingungen die “Blechkanne” nur den Resonanzkörper bildet.
Dass indes ein solches Instrument gleich vierfach auf dem Podium
erscheint, ist in Deutschland, noch dazu in der Klassik, selten.
Anders als im Geburtsland Frankreich, ist das Saxofon hierzulande
in diesem Genre eher ein geduldeter Exot. Wieso eigentlich? Das
fragt man sich um so mehr nach dem Konzert des Signum
Saxophone Quartet am Sonntagabend zu den Dresdner
Musikfestspielen im ausverkauften Atrium der Sparkassen-
Versicherung Sachsen im Stadtteil Mickten. Zumal ein Haydn-
Streichquartett das Programm eröffnete, das für Sopran- (Blaž
Kemperle), Alt- (HayrapetArakelyan), Tenor- (Alan Luzar) und
Baritonsaxofon (Guerino Bellarosa) arrangiert war. Wenig Holz statt viel Holz also, das dieser vor Entstehung ihrer Instrumente gesetzten Musik neue Aspekte entlockte. Mehr Kontraste von Laut und Leise etwa. Andere Klangfarben sowieso.
Aber das war bei Weitem nicht alles an diesem Abend. Bei einem Arrangement von Modest Mussorgskis Klavierwerk “Bilder einer Ausstellung” zeigten die vier jungen Männer in Schwarz, welcher Farbreichtum in ihren Instrumenten steckt. Das klingt mal nach Flöte, mal nach Horn, ja, mit spezieller Anblastechnik entlockte Guerino Bellarosa seinem Bariton, dem unterschätztesten Mitglied der Familie Sax, gar Töne, die wie tiefe Pizzicati klangen. Perfekt aufeinander eingespielt und die vielen heiklen Passagen des Stücks scheinbar mühelos meisternd, erweckte das Quartett den Eindruck, als seien die “Bilder” extra für diese Besetzung geschrieben worden.
Das Publikum war aus dem Häuschen – und konnte gleich draußen bleiben, als die Vier nach der Pause eine Suite aus Leonard Bernsteins “West Side Story” spielten, die in Sachen Rhythmik, Effektreichtum, perkussiver Klänge etcetera noch eine Schippe draufpackte.
Der zwei kurzen, hochvirtuosen Stücke “Four For Tango” von Astor Piazzolla und “Spain”, einer “Aranjuez”-Variation nach Joaquín Rodrigo von Chick Corea, hätte es fast nicht mehr bedurft. Denn beweisen mussten die Musiker da schon längst nichts mehr.