Fantasy
Track Listing
FantasyThe authoritative Saxophone Journal has judged Otis Murphy’s musicianship to represent “a hallmark of all the artistry and craftsmanship involved in saxophone performance.” He has, says the publication, “a bright and rich sound that at times is pure emotion singing from the artist’s very essence.” His technique is termed “amazing and equally coordinated,” capable of “easily switching gears” from “extremely tender and sensitive playing” to a style “as aggressive as the dictates of the composition.” Murphy’s program on this compact disc exploits, in the most positive sense of that flexibly applied word, his prowess both as practitioner of the saxophone and as an artist fully attuned to the music he has chosen to play. He is a saxophonist obviously in love with his instrument; he is its partner and master, prepared to showcase the saxophone’s tonal beauty and its ability, when in the right hands and under knowing guidance, to engender feelings, to evoke moods, and to express a musician’s interpretative choices. Collaborating on piano in this recorded recital is Murphy’s talented wife Haruko, an accomplished solo artist herself, here weaving her keyboard talents into fused support of her husbands’ intents. Their program blends music written for the saxophone with works written for other instruments, rearranged or transcribed. Bill of Fare1 Carmen Fantasy from the opera by G. Bizet (1900/1993) François Borne (arr. Roth/ Meylan) (1840-1920) The Carmen Fantasy by François Borne, based on major themes from Georges Bizet’s operatic masterpiece, was originally scored for flute and orchestra. Borne himself was a professor of flute at the Toulouse Conservatory with an interest in fashioning repertoire for his instrument. Shaped as it was for flute, Borne’s Fantasy featured a feast of embellishments. Those complex enrichments have been retained in this CD’s arrangement for alto saxophone. So, too, has the high register of the flute, meaning that Murphy is required to handle with fluency notes well above the normal range of his instrument. 2 The Swan Camille Saint-Saëns (arr. Rousseau) (1835-1921) The French master, Camille Saint-Saëns, wrote The Carnival of the Animals as a lark. The composer thought it so unimportant the he did not consider having it published or even performed during his lifetime. But once this infectious collection of zoological impressions came to light, it gained immediate favor with audiences. In original format, Carnival calls for two pianos and orchestra. Through the years, some performers added poetry to the work, though the music itself carries sufficient wit and suggestiveness to make its own point. One of its most popular pieces has been “The Swan” which, in cello format, served as inspiration for one of the legendary ballerina Anna Pavlova’s most asked-for solo dances. Here, “The Swan” is brought to life be saxophone and piano. 3 Ballade (1939) Henri Tomasi (1901-1972) Another Frenchman, Henri Tomasi, split his professional career between conducting and composing. In the latter role, he wrote a pair of operas, several ballet scores, and a generous amount of orchestral and instrumental music, often colored and harmonized in the style of contemporaries such as Francis Poulenc, Darius Milhaud, Artur Honegger, and yet with a distinctive voice of its own, too. The writing of Tomasi’s Ballade was motivated by an old English melody that fevered the composer’s imagination. He reportedly envisioned a tall, somewhat emaciated clown along the banks of the Seine speaking to no one but the night: of a desire to shed his outlandish, oversized clothes and to escape even his flesh by being transformed into a saxophone and thereby become able to express joy and pain. The French saxophonist Marcel Mule, who first played the Ballade, interpreted the music as expressing that desire and an attending melancholy as, in despair, “the clown resigns himself to continue to make the public laugh.” Mule called the piece “a little drama,” taking “the form of the blues, which was invented by black musicians, and at the end, it explodes…in a sonorous mass of loud noise, but harmonious, not like we hear these days.” 4 Aria (after the Manual for the Fantasy in F of J.S. Bach) (1936) Eugène Bozza (1905-1991) Speaking of Marcel Mule, the Aria (after the Manuel for the Fantasy in F of J.S. Bach) was prepared for him by Eugene Bozza, a composer, conductor, and teacher whose list of accomplishments included conducting the orchestra of the Opera Comique in Paris and heading the Conservatoire in Valenciennes. Bozza’s music was strong in fluent melody, elegance of structure, and reflected his keen sense for instrumental capabilities. In the lovely Bach aria, Bozza had the right source material to rouse his natural compositional instincts. Sonata for Alto Saxophone and Piano (1988) David Maslanka (born 1943) The highly regarded, Massachusetts born David Maslanka – trained at the New England and Oberlin Conservatories and at Michigan State University – lives and works in Missoula, Montana. Although Maslanka’s output of compositions is broad in range, he is best known for his works for wind instruments and percussions. Among his most admired pieces is the Sonata for Alto Saxophone and Piano, commissioned by the North American Saxophone Alliance. Much of the score, strongly influenced by minimalism, inhabits the high end of the saxophone’s range and, thus, offers daunting challenges to the player. The Sonata often is carried along by patterned and propulsive rhythms, as exemplified in the repeated passages of the opening movement and in the reflective material of the second. The concluding Presto asks much of both the saxophonist and the pianist; it requires virtuosity and the ultimate in ensemble unity. Japanese Folk Song Traditional Japanese Folk Song based on beloved traditional folk songs…etc. - Program notes by Peter Jacobi. |
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