The Tel Aviv Saxophone Quartet

Yesterday evening, combined with a celebration of Women's Day, we were treated to a concert by the Tel Aviv Saxophone Quartet. Their personnel has changed from the photographs on their site: whilst the alto and baritone players are the same, the tenor and soprano players have changed. The new soprano player comes from our kibbutz (he and my son were childhood buddies) and the new tenor player comes from a moshav not too far away and went to school with a few kibbutz members.

I missed the beginning of the concert (8:30pm is too early for a Friday night) so there may have been a formal presentation of the quartet and its aims. I didn't catch the names of most of the pieces they played, but looking at a list posted on their site, I can see that they played a piece by French composer Bozza as well as what was originally a string quartet by Kodály, rearranged for a saxophone quartet.

The only piece whose name I did catch was the closer, six bagatelles by Ligeti. I found a performance of this on YouTube which gives an idea of what we heard last night (although without the choreography!). There it is played by a piccolo, oboe, clarinet, French horn and bassoon; obviously one part got swallowed up in the translation to four parts.

As is hinted by all the composers, the music was strictly 20th century, meaning that there weren't any 'tunes' nor chordal progressions. The pieces in no way are easy on the ear, although some of the Ligeti pieces were more textural as opposed to musical (that's not a criticism). Whatever, the playing and communication between the instruments was precise and impressive. The acoustic balance was excellent, achieved without microphones. The tone of all the saxophones was 'pure' as opposed to 'jazzy'. I often feel that the saxophone parts which I sequence are not realistic as there are no slurs or other modern affectations, but they would have been at home with the pieces played yesterday (although they would have stood out due to their simplicity).

Looking at the list of pieces by Ligeti,  I see that there is one called 'Clocks and clouds', written in 1972-3. There is a piece by National Health bearing the same name from about 1975; it wouldn't surprise me that Dave L. Stewart appropriated the name although I doubt that the content is similar. Stewart's one time collaborator Mont Campbell lifted a part from Vaughan Williams' 'Overture to The Wasps'.

Unfortunately I don't have a photograph from yesterday evening: the empty seat which I found was behind the baritone sax player. Even from straight on, I doubt that I would have achieved a good photograph as the players 'hid' behind their music stands. It never even occurred to me to record their playing.