Fono Forum: outstanding.
This album features works by Edison Denisov, performed by Claude Delangle (alto saxophone), Odile Delangle (piano), and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales under Tadaaki Otaka.
Denisov’s Concerto for Alto Saxophone and Orchestra is a reworking of his earlier Viola Concerto from 1986. The final movement, based on variations of Schubert’s Impromptu in A-flat major, serves as the work’s culmination, blending atonality with Schubert’s theme in a delicate and introspective conclusion.
Peinture for orchestra, dedicated to the Russian painter Boris Birger, is a study in orchestral color and texture. Using a twelve-tone row as the structural basis, the piece moves from pure colors at the beginning and end to complex tonal blends in the central sections.
The Sonata for Alto Saxophone and Piano (1970), dedicated to Jean-Marie Londeix, presents a cycle of three contrasting movements. While the first movement conceals its jazz influences, the finale brings them to the surface in a virtuosic display.
This recording captures Denisov’s fusion of twelve-tone techniques with lyrical and expressive elements, demonstrating his role as a key figure in 20th-century Russian music.
Extra material for download
