Search - Claude Debussy, Jacques Ibert, Heitor Villa-Lobos :: Saxophone Concertos

Could be much, much, much, better

James Dobernig | 01/12/2000

(2 out of 5 stars)

"This CD was an interesting attempt by John Harle to perform several works of high caliber. Unfortunately, he was not very successful. I was reading the sheet music while listening to the Glazunov concerto and was stunned at Harle's cuts of two important parts. One was a potion of the cadenza (come on, who in their right mind would dare to cut out any portion of ANY cadenza), and second was the cut of a portion near the end which leads to the all important "grand-finale". He didn't write the piece, Glazunov did. In addition, I did not like his articulations (his motto obviously being "when in doubt, slur") or his tone (being rather weak and uninterested). This is not a CD that I would recommend to many people. He should pay more attention to his tone and the music (and musicality) of the pieces, rather than solely his technique (which I will give him a hand for). Congrats to St. Martin-in-the-Fields for doing an excellent job (they were, in my humble opinion, the highlight of this cd)"

Just Not Good Enough!

Raymond M. | Sydney, Australia | 09/30/2005

(1 out of 5 stars)

"This CD - like many other classical saxophone CDs - sure polarizes opinion!

Personally, I have to agree with the many other reviewers who can't stand it.

When it first appeared in its original guise, I was excited by an album of many of the saxophone favorites performed by a well-known orchestra and conductor on a major label. (the Rousseau and Savijoki discs were almost the only ones readily available prior to then.)

I had only heard Harle play previously with The Michael Nyman Band.

Unfortunately, the album just sucks!

For several reasons, mostly mentioned by other reviewers:



1. Harle's articulation - often non-existant; you'd think there wasn't a single non-legato phrase in any of the works featured.

2. Harle's musicianship - he has a distasteful habit of swelling long notes; he sounds like he's just going through the motions or, as another reviewer suggested, playing it the way his teacher did all those years ago. Also, he can't seem to play in a style other than what is appropriate for the Nyman ensemble (NOT appropriate for Debussy!).

3. The recording quality - horribly muddy; having done a masterclass with Mr. Harle I can tell you that his tone is quite brittle and strident so I suspect the engineers were doing their utmost to swathe his sound in lashings of artificial warmth.

4. The orchestra - unfortunately! I suspect Mr. Marriner and his orchestra weren't particularly enthused by the project because they lack...almost everything!



You get the idea...I won't bother with other areas of his playing, such as altissimo, correct notes, fast passages, intonation etc.



Having said all that, I don't wish to damn Mr. Harle entirely(Do you believe me?!). At least the disc brings two new works to the table (albeit not particularly inspiring ones, in my opinion). And I do quite like his work with Michael Nyman - The Draughtsman's Contract soundtrack, "Where the Bee Dances" etc.



There is one point where I may disagree with some other reviewers: alternate offerings. For an aspiring classical saxophonist, I would suggest listening to Claude Delangle and Arno Bornkamp (unfortunately, many of Arno's recordings are no longer available - they were on the Vanguard label, I believe).

Marcel Mule too, though the recordings are old and scratchy, and his playing sounds "of it's time"; he's a paragon of elegance. I always marvel at the classiness of his Ibert recordings.

I can't bring myself (and I apologize to all those who will recoil in horror at my disparaging of such a doyen of American players) to recommend Eugene Rousseau. I know he was a beloved teacher, mentor and inspiration to many - all wonderfully laudable qualities - but his recordings (I admit I've never heard a live performance) are just woeful! Personally, I wouldn't characterize his DG concerto disc as ghastly, as another reviewer did - it's the best Rousseau disc I've heard.



Anyway...

I have to agree with "Shooshie" in that saxophonists of real REAL quality seem to be quite rare and perhaps the reasons for that are as suggested in Shooshie's review. I don't know. Maybe young players need to not listen to all the mediocre recordings out there, or even the good ones (!) and listen instead to fine violinists, pianists, cellists etc. and model their approach to the saxophone on what they hear there. Maybe they shouldn't be focussing on good altissimo as the be-all-and-end-all of saxophone playing but instead allow that to come later after they can play the simplest phrase exquisitely.

Many reviewers on this site rave about certain other performers or discs that to me just don't cut it either - but hey, that's what personal taste and opinions are all about.



To reiterate: stick with Claude, Arno and Marcel...or not!

"

Muddy Sound

O. Angel Negrin | 04/16/2003

(2 out of 5 stars)

"Not a well recorded album. Murky sound throughout and a lack of sonic clarity. The sax and ensemble fight each other to emerge from te mix. Bad job of balancing by the engineer! The playing is OK, but not great. There are better saxophone with orchestra CDs out there."