French Saxophones - 25 Years Jubilee by Aurelia Saxophone Quartet

Aurelia Saxophone Quartet

French Saxophones - 25 Years Jubilee

Format: CD
Label: Challenge Classics
UPC: 0608917233124
Catnr: CC 72331
Release date: 27 February 2009

2 CD

Label
Challenge Classics

UPC
0608917233124

Catalogue number
CC 72331

Release date
27 February 2009

Album

Artist(s)

Composer(s)

About the album

In the beginning of the 1990s we made two CDs dedicated to French music with the Aurelia Saxophone Quartet. Our ensemble, then 10 years young, had already made a name for itself with a number of daring arrangements. The string quartets by Maurice Ravel and Claude Debussy drew the most attention. After all, this was “sacred” music. While developing our interpretation, we wanted to make certain of our ground so we consulted with such renowned string players as Stefan Metz (then the Orlando String Quartet’s cellist) and Raphael Hillyer (former viola player of the Juilliard
String Quartet).

We decided to present the Ravel and Debussy quartets together with the string quartet by these composers’ contemporary Albert Roussel on the CD. The quartets by Debussy and Ravel are often mentioned in the same breath, despite their many differences, and they do bear similarities in their approach to the instruments, harmonic and rhythmic ideas, and musical atmosphere. In addition, the two composers both wrote their only string quartet relatively early in their careers. A year later, we recorded French music that was composed specifically for saxophone quartet. The pieces by Florent Schmitt, Jean Françaix, Gabriel Pierné, Eugène Bozza, Alfred Desenclos and Jean Rivier were all written around the middle of the twentieth century and form the basis of the saxophone quartet repertoire. These pieces were each composed at the request of the famous French saxophone pioneer Marcel Mule (1901-2001). In 1928, Mule and three colleagues from the Garde Républicaine de Paris formed the Quatuor de Saxophones de la Garde Républicaine. This quartet, with its brilliant and expressive playing was perfectly suited for the performance of virtuoso French music. The great French saxophonist Jean-Marie Londeix (one of Mule’s most gifted students) wrote us when the recording was released: “The work that you have invested in the playing of Debussy and Ravel pays off with the results of this CD.” For us, that was the confirmation of our efforts to draw a link between the work of the French “saxophone composers” and their illustrious impressionistic predecessors.
Arno Bornkamp (2008)

Het jubileumalbum van het Aurelia Saxofoonkwartet
Het eerste album gewijd aan Franse muziek, met de strijkkwartetten van Debussy en Ravel, verscheen toen het Aurelia Saxofoonkwartet tien jaar jong was. Het ensemble had toen al naam gemaakt met zijn gewaagde bewerkingen. De werken werden samen met het strijkkwartet van tijdgenoot Albert Roussel gepresenteerd. Ondanks hun verschillen worden deze strijkkwartetten vaak in één adem genoemd. Er zijn namelijk overeenkomsten in de muzikale sfeer, benadering van de instrumenten en de harmonische en ritmische ideeën.

Een jaar later verscheen een album met Franse muziek die speciaal voor saxofoonkwartet was gecomponeerd. Deze werken werden allemaal gecomponeerd rond het midden van de 20e eeuw, en vormen de basis van het repertoire van saxofoonkwartet. Ze werden op verzoek van Marcel Mule gecomponeerd, een beroemde Franse pionier op het gebied van de saxofoon. Mule richtte het Quator de Saxophones de la Garde Républicaine op. Dit kwartet was door zijn briljante en expressieve spel zeer geschikt voor het uitvoeren van virtuoze Franse muziek.

Beide albums zijn nu samengevoegd in dit dubbelalbum ter gelegenheid van het 25-jarig jubileum van het Aurelia Saxofoonkwartet het ensemble is inmiddels niet meer weg te denken uit het muziekleven!

Anlässlich des 25. Bestehens des Aurelia Saxophon Quartetts veröffentlicht Challenge Classics eine Doppel-CD mit französsichen Kompositionen, die bereits 1990 beim - ebenfalls niederländischen - Label Etcetera als Einzel-CDs erschienen sind. Damals war das Quartett 10 Jahre jung. Heute ist das Ensemble aus dem Musikleben nicht mehr wegzudenken.

Artist(s)

Aurelia Saxophone Quartet

The hot Italian summer of 1982; four young Dutch saxophonists rehearsing in Via Aurelia in Rome; the beginning of a sensational, pioneering chamber-music ensemble: the Aurelia Saxophone Quartet. Then came: Concerts throughout the world from Suntory Hall in Tokyo to the Gewandhaus in Leipzig – not to mention the little church in Marken-Binnen in the Dutch province of Noord-Holland and a municipal centre in Oristano, Sardinia which smelt of beer. Radio and television performanceswithin the Netherlands and abroad. Multiple CDs to the group’s name, one of which won an Edison and international praise, setting a new standard for saxophone quartets the world over. Collaboration with artists from all disciplines, including dance and theatre, as well as a great many musicians: pianists Ivo Janssen and...

Radio and television performanceswithin the Netherlands and abroad.

Multiple CDs to the group’s name, one of which won an Edison and international praise, setting a new standard for saxophone quartets the world over.

Collaboration with artists from all disciplines, including dance and theatre, as well as a great many musicians: pianists Ivo Janssen and Juan Pablo Dobal, bandoneon players Gustavo Toker and Carel Kraaijenhof, the Netherlands Wind Ensemble, the Georgian women’s choir Mzetamze, the gamelan ensemble Multifoon, Slagwerkgroep Den Haag, the Japanese saxophone quartet Trouvère, the Hague Residentie Orchestra and others.

Over seventy world premieres of works by ter Veldhuis, Goldstein, Keuris, Andriessen and many others. The group gives compositions the chance to grow and plays pieces frequently so that they are heard often.

Astounding and ambitious arrangements. String quartets by Ravel, Debussy and Shostakovich, The Art of Fugue and the sonatas of Domenico Scarlatti. Pushing boundaries for our one great love: the saxophone quartet.
In 2017 the Aurelia Saxophone Quartet is ending after 35 beautiful years. The current members have decided to stop playing together because the successful development of their personal projects leaves no room for concerts. The quartet is proud to pass the baton to the promising next generation.

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Arno Bornkamp

ARNO BORNKAMP Dutch saxophonist Arno Bornkamp (1959) is the archetype of the modern virtuoso, feeling equally at home in traditional and contemporary repertoire. Hailed as a lyrical musician with a great sense of performance, Bornkamp studied at the Sweelinck Conservatory in Amsterdam with Ed Bogaard and graduated in 1986 with the highest distinction. He has won many awards, the 'Silver Laurel of the Concertgebouw' and the 'Netherlands Music Prize' among the most noteworthy. The latter enabled him to go abroad, studying in France with Daniel Deffayet and Jean-Marie Londeix, in Japan with Ryo Noda as well as working with composers as Luciano Berio and Karlheinz Stockhausen. Since his 1982 solo debut in Rome, performing the 'Concertino da Camera' by Jacques Ibert, he has played more than 250 concerts with orchestras around the world, including the most important works from the saxophone repertoire in addition to new concerti written especially for him, such as the 'Tallahatchie Concerto' by Jacob TV. In the year 2009 Bornkamp added 3 new works to his repertoire: 'Trois Danses' (orig. for oboe) by Frank Martin and 2 new saxophone concerto's by Joey Roukens and Carlos Michans. Chamber music is also a great love of Arno Bornkamp. He has a long-standing duo with pianist Ivo Janssen and is part of the Aurelia Saxophone Quartet (one of the world's most acclaimed saxophone quartet), which celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2008. Arno Bornkamp's many activities (including concerts, festivals, masterclasses, lectures) have taken him to many countries in Europe, the USA, the Far East and South America, but the highlight of his career took place closer to home: in the summer of 1996 he played with Ivo Janssen due to the Prinsengracht Concert in Amsterdam for an audience of more than 15.000 people. The many CD's he has made since 1990 since on various labels have garnered national and international praise. A remarkable project is a tryptich of CD's on the Ottavo label: 'The Classical Saxophone from a Historical Perspective', covering three important periods in the history of the saxophone: the beginning period with works from around 1850 written for Adolphe Sax ('Adolphe Sax Revisited'), the beginning of the 20th Century with impressionistic music ('Boston-Paris, the Elisa Hall Collection') and the years '20 and '30 in Berlin ('Metropolis Berlin'). His most recent CD-project was released by the Basta label in 2009: 'Buku of Horn: Arno B. plays JacobTV', a portrait of Dutch composer JacobTV. Arno Bornkamp is a renowned teacher, leading an international saxophone class at the Conservatory of Amsterdam. In the summer he teaches the International Saxophone Masterclass in Laubach (Germany) and at the Université d'Eté Européenne pour saxophone in Gap (France).

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Johan van der Linden

André Arends

Willem van Merwijk

Composer(s)

Claude Debussy

Claude Debussy was a French composer. He and Maurice Ravel were the most prominent figures associated with impressionist music, though Debussy disliked the term when applied to his compositions. He was made Chevalier of the Legion of Honour in 1903. He was among the most influential composers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and his use of non-traditional scales and chromaticism influenced many composers who followed. Debussy's music is noted for its sensory content and frequent usage of non-traditional tonalities. The prominent French literary style of his period was known as Symbolism, and this movement directly inspired Debussy both as a composer and as an active cultural participant Among his most famous works are his Clair de Lune, his Three Nocturnes...

Claude Debussy was a French composer. He and Maurice Ravel were the most prominent figures associated with impressionist music, though Debussy disliked the term when applied to his compositions. He was made Chevalier of the Legion of Honour in 1903. He was among the most influential composers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and his use of non-traditional scales and chromaticism influenced many composers who followed.
Debussy's music is noted for its sensory content and frequent usage of non-traditional tonalities. The prominent French literary style of his period was known as Symbolism, and this movement directly inspired Debussy both as a composer and as an active cultural participant Among his most famous works are his Clair de Lune, his Three Nocturnes and his orchestral piece La Mer.

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Maurice Ravel

Joseph Maurice Ravel was a French composer who is often associated with impressionism along with his elder contemporary Claude Debussy, although both composers rejected the term. In the 1920s and 1930s Ravel was internationally regarded as France's greatest living composer.
Born to a music-loving family, Ravel attended France's premier music college, the Paris Conservatoire; he was not well regarded by its conservative establishment, whose biased treatment of him caused a scandal. After leaving the Conservatoire Ravel found his own way as a composer, developing a style of great clarity, incorporating elements of baroque, neoclassicism and, in his later works, jazz. He liked to experiment with musical form, as in his best-known work, Boléro (1928), in which repetition takes the place of development. He made some orchestral arrangements of other composers' music, of which his 1922 version of Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition is the best known.
As a slow and painstaking worker, Ravel composed fewer pieces than many of his contemporaries. Among his works to enter the repertoire are pieces for piano, chamber music, two piano concertos, ballet music, two operas, and eight song cycles; he wrote no symphonies and only one religious work. Many of his works exist in two versions: a first, piano score and a later orchestration. Some of his piano music, such as Gaspard de la nuit (1908), is exceptionally difficult to play, and his complex orchestral works such as Daphnis et Chloé (1912) require skilful balance in performance.

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Albert Roussel

Gabriel Pierné

Currently Gabriel Pierné is primarily known as a conductor. From 1910 till 1933 he was the principal conductor of the concert series Concerts Colonne. He also led the premiere of Stravinsky's ballet The Firebird, performed by the Ballets Russes, for whom he also composed three succesful ballets. Most of Pierné's compositions are forgotten today. Yet he was he striking figure of the French organ school, who succeeded César Franck as organist at the Sainte-Clotilde Basilica in Paris in 1890, where he displayed his talent on the organ of the influential builder Aristide Cavaillé-Coll. Besides a modest number of organ works, his oeuvre consists of operas, ballets, oratorios, orchestral works and chamber music. All of his works are marked by the influences of his teachers Franck and Massenet and...

Currently Gabriel Pierné is primarily known as a conductor. From 1910 till 1933 he was the principal conductor of the concert series Concerts Colonne. He also led the premiere of Stravinsky's ballet The Firebird, performed by the Ballets Russes, for whom he also composed three succesful ballets.
Most of Pierné's compositions are forgotten today. Yet he was he striking figure of the French organ school, who succeeded César Franck as organist at the Sainte-Clotilde Basilica in Paris in 1890, where he displayed his talent on the organ of the influential builder Aristide Cavaillé-Coll.
Besides a modest number of organ works, his oeuvre consists of operas, ballets, oratorios, orchestral works and chamber music. All of his works are marked by the influences of his teachers Franck and Massenet and a clear technique. His most famous works are the oratorio La Croisade des Enfants, Introduction et variations sur une ronde populaire for saxophone quartet and the Marche des petits soldats de plomb for piano.

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