Lyrical Baritone

Transcriptions — adapting a musical score for a different instrument than originally intended – generally require a level of audacity that few musicians can muster. Saxophonist Adam Estes, however, shows himself to be undaunted on LYRICAL BARITONE, VOL. 1, tackling well-loved works by Beethoven, Händel, and Saint-Saëns.

While the lowest note of the cello and the baritone saxophone is the same, the common playing range very much isn’t: the cello’s stretches an entire octave further, rendering literal transcriptions fiendishly difficult to play. This considerable challenge seems to pose no difficulty to Estes at all: with great lightness and delicacy, he navigates calmly and confidently through even the most treacherous musical waters. A virtuosic feat and feast.