This disc from Britain's Chandos label, bearing prominent logos from the Yamaha corporation and the
BBC Philharmonic, exemplifies the brave new world of financing a major orchestral recording. It also demonstrates that the effort is worth the trouble. The disc resembles several issued by the BIS label in Sweden in its renewed focus on traditional solo virtuosity, so long kept in check in contemporary music by a modernism that despised sense pleasures of all kinds. All the music might fall under the neoclassic banner (these are, after all, saxophone concertos), but each work is entirely distinctive. Japanese saxophonist
Nobuya Sugawa introduces two contemporary Japanese composers Takashi Yoshimatsu and
Toshiyuki Honda, whose music is not widely known in the West. The
Honda Concerto du vent (which he translates as Concerto of the wind) is especially noteworthy.
Honda sets himself the task, natural enough, of incorporating jazz influences into a classical saxophone piece, and he adds another layer: he avoids jazz tonality. Instead, he begins with the premise that, as the composer himself writes in the booklet, "[i]n jazz the phrase is central, a true treasure, its structure unique and fascinating. By keeping the phrase as the structural basis, we tried to expand, transform, and develop the musical lines."
Sugawa, who has sought to expand the classical saxophone repertoire by building bridges to jazz and world music traditions, does an ideal job of leading the listener into this unique concept, and even those who don't read booklets are likely to divine and appreciate it. The European neo-classic concertos by
Ibert and Lars-Erik Larsson are linked by a common commissioner, German (and later American) saxophonist Sigurd Rascher, who himself started out playing jazz in Berlin. One of the many virtues of
Sugawa's performances throughout is how he catches the subtle jazz presence in all four of these works. Another is sheer virtuosity; Rascher was known for utilizing the saxophone's top (or altissimo) register, and Larsson must have pushed him to the maximum.
Sugawa is unfazed by the work's difficulties, and the rhapsodic opening movement, which seems to refer back to
Debussy's Indonesian-inspired Impressionism, is an absolutely gorgeous tour de force. One could continue to list the strong points of this disc, but suffice it to say it crosses into new realms while maintaining an assured mastery and that the modest reputation of the genre of classical music for saxophone continues herewith to grow. Booklet notes are in English, French, German, Spanish, and Japanese.