On his several discs for BIS, the French saxophonist Claude Delangle has given ample proof of his musical curiosity. Besides core repertoire, he has recorded some of the earliest saxophone works, composed for the instrument’s inventor Adolphe Sax, as well as uncompromisingly contemporary music by composers such as Scelsi, Berio and Hosokawa. Eager to widen his horizons he has collaborated not only with pianists and orchestras, but also with singers or percussionists, exploring fields such as Argentine tango or Japanese chamber music. Described as ‘a superb virtuoso and no less so as a musician’ by the reviewer in Le Monde de la Musique, and as ‘simply the mellowest, most subtle, liquid, and dreamy saxophonist I’ve ever heard’ by a colleague in American Record Guide, Delangle has now visited Taiwan, and the Taipei Chinese Orchestra, an ensemble of some 50 musicians, playing traditional Chinese instruments such as erhu, pipa, suona, bronze bells and many others. The programme includes two saxophone concertos by the prominent Taiwanese composer Yiu-Kwong Chung (b.1956), as well as Open Secret, a work composed for Claude Delangle and the orchestra by the young composer Leilei Tian (b. 1971). But besides these original compositions there are also arrangements of two traditional Chinese pieces, which in Claude Delangle’s own words formed a musical entryway for him ‘into the great tradition of Chinese music’. This is the second disc in a collaboration between BIS and Taipei Chinese Orchestra, following Whirling Dance – a disc which received praise both for the repertoire (‘one cannot avoid being pulled in by the magic of this music’, klassik-heute.de) and the performances by the soloist Sharon Beazly and the orchestra, described in Classic FM Magazine as ‘a joyful discovery, evoking delicate playfulness, high drama, or the tranquillity of a misty Chinese valley with equal atmosphere.’
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