Suite Off Pist (1996/2018)

Svante Henryson (b. 1963)

I. Off Pist

II. Powder Ballad

III. Figure 8’s

"Part 1 "Off Pist" was commissioned in 1996 by SVT, the Swedish Public Television, for a televised concert at Berwaldhallen in Stockholm. It was written for and premiered by soprano saxophonist Anders Paulsson and myself.

“We have something in common: we feel drawn to the limits, in music as well as in our mutual hobby alpine skiing. In music, we like to take our instruments to places they have never been, by extending range, playing techniques, and even genres, involving an exhilarating degree of risk. We like to cross the black-and-yellow tape and go off pist.

“After the concert at Berwaldhallen, I decided to write two more parts, creating a three-part Suite Off Pist. But life got in the way, and it took me 22 years to begin writing the two last parts: Powder Ballad and Figure 8's." --Svante Henryson

Bid Call (2003)

Libby Larsen (b. 1950)

I. Rapidfire

II. Traige

III. Rapidfire with Bodran

Bid Call resulted from the investigation that saxophonist Paul Bro and I have of finding musical form in American language traditions. In previous works, we'd looked at the revivalist preacher's musical form. I had also been studying auctioneering patter for a long time, and it suddenly dawned on me that our new piece should explore that vocal style. In the auction business, it is referred to as "bidcall," with people training a long time to develop their own patter and style. This piece is all about auctioneers' styles, pitches, timing, and complex and wonderful rhythms

A word about two Irish terms used in the titles of the second and third movements. “Traige” means “mood.” In Old Irish, it was used as an element in compound words denoting types of music, such as suantrai (sleep music), goltrai (sorrowful music), and geantrai (joyful music). A bodran is a shallow one-sided drum played with short knobbed sticks (from bodhar, dull [of sound]).

I would like to thank Dale Newton for his creativity and guidance in developing new techniques for the cello.

-Libby Larsen

Sonate pour saxophone alto et violoncelle (1994)

Edison Denisov (1929-1996)

I. Allegro risoluto

Note from the composer: 

"This sonata was composed in 1994 for its dedicatee Claude Delangle [Professor of Saxophone at Paris Conservatory].

The perfect match between the saxophone and violoncello results from a compositional approach that respects the idiosyncrasies of each instrument.

This rather virtuosic composition is in keeping with the earlier sonata for saxophone and piano (1970) and developing some of the latter's ideas."

--Edison Denisov

In particular, this work makes use of the full ranges of both instruments, including quarter tones and melismatic polyrhythms, and draws some influence from jazz music, which becomes more apparent in the third movement. Denisov also studied mathematics, which perhaps explains some of the complicated polyrhythmic and serialist tendencies in much of his music.

Duet for Alto Saxophone and Violoncello, op. 99 (1999)

Nikolai Kapustin (1937- 2020)

I. Allegretto

II. Grave

III. Sonatina. Animato

Kapustin was a Soviet Russian composer born in Ukraine who passed away earlier this year. In addition to composing, he was also a jazz pianist and arranger, and was known primarily for composing what some might call "classical jazz" music. He essentially wrote through-composed jazz music with no improvisation. While most of his compositions were written for piano, he did write a handful of chamber music pieces for other instruments, such as the work you will hear tonight for alto saxophone and cello. As with many of his other works, this work combines classical forms (such as the explicitly-labeled Sonatina as the 3rd movement) with jazz musical language. The use of the saxophone is an obvious reference to jazz, and he treats it melodically most of the time. Though Oscar Pettiford might disagree, the cello is not normally a "standard" jazz instrument, but in this piece it often takes on the role of the bass player with pizzicato walking bass lines. The dexterity of the cello even allows it to be treated somewhat pianistically with double stop-laden grooves, especially in the first and third movements, at times evoking a stride or boogie-woogie quality.

Disco Toccata (1994)

Guillaume Connesson (b. 1970)

Disco Toccata is a short piece, clocking in at around 2 minutes, and French composer Guillaume Connesson wrote it in one morning. The piece is a fusion of contemporary classical chamber music and the strong beat and melodic shapes characteristic of disco music. The fast tempo and virtuosity required for the piece reminded Connesson of the baroque toccata, which is a type of composition meant to show off the performers' dexterity.

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