New Polish Music For Saxophone
P. Gusnar and his Guest / contemporary
Website(s) : http://www.gusnar.eu
Compositions made for Pawel Gusnar, varying greatly in terms of style, aesthetics,and individual sonority. Artists from Warsaw will reinterpret them, mixing traditional and neoclassical sonorities.
Biography
Paweł Gusnar has been a professor at the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw and Academy of Music in Łódź. He is one of the few saxophonists who moves freely between classical music and jazz. The artist regularly co-operates with Sinfonia Varsovia and Warsaw Philharmonic and Big-bands. As a soloist he played with the orchestras of most of the Polish philharmonics. He recorded nearly 50 CD’s including five solo releases: New Polish Music for Saxophone and Organ, Jazz Sonatas, Komeda Inspirations, Saxophone Impressions and Saxophone Varie. The last album is winner of the FRYDERYK Music Award 2014. In addition, he participated in the production of many television recordings for TVP, TVN and POLSAT. He is artist of YAMAHA, RICO D’Addario and BG-France.
More informations
The concert is based on the pieces from latest album of Pawel Gusnar – Saxophone Varie – New Facets of Polish Saxophone Music. This album was inspired by many contemporary Polish composers writing in the last few years.The present program seeks to acquaint the listener with highly interesting works by Warsaw artists of the young and middle generation connected with the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music. All the compositions have in common the person of Pawel Gusnar, for whom the works subject to recording were composed, and who was the first to perform them. The presented compositions vary greatly in terms of style and aesthetics, technical considerations, and individual sonority. However, we can easily say that gestures made toward the musical tradition, tonality, and neoclassical aesthetics dominate. Sonoristic experiments are rare on this program.
Two compositions by Milosz Bembinow (b. 1978) are included in the album: Small Sketch (2005) and KOMEDitAtion (2009) for soprano saxophone, tenor saxophone, and organ. Milosz Bembinow explains in his comments: “In both cases, the organ part has notated dynamics without clear registration indications. This model has certainly passed the test, as Small Sketch was performed on instruments originating both from the sixteenth century (in Legnickie Pole, a village in Lower Silesia), and contemporary times (for example in Strassbourg), allowing Jan Bokszczanin to freely shape the instrument’s sonority. In several places Pawel Gusnar in turn added his own, unnotated embellishments and completions to the music, which suit perfectly the climate of both compositions. The works are also connected by their general formal outline, as well as the use of imitation. Although Small Sketch utilizes a chant motive, while KOMEDitAtion that of a popular song, the general musical climate of both works is analogous”. Small Sketch (2005) The premiere performance (Pawel Gusnar and Jan Bokszczanin) was given on September 9, 2005, in the Legnica Cathedral, at the above-mentioned festival’s closing
concert. The composition begins with a slow introduction based on Gregorian chant motives.
There follows a section with a lively and light musical course, assembled from a dialogue of the organ and soprano saxophone. A slowing down and quietening of the music leads to the next stage of the composition, where our attention turns to a calm sequence of chords in the organ. A moment later, the tenor saxophone joins in, leading the music with a lyrical melodic line ‘coloured’ with subtle, almost jazz-like ornaments. At the closing of the piece, the composer reminds the musical ideas from the beginning of the piece. After the break, two pieces for alto saxophone and saxophone quartet by Krzysztof Herdzin. Fairytale Stories and Polish Suite.The first will be a world premiere. The second will be recorded at soon for the new album.
Programming
11/07/2015 12:45 - 13:15
Cité de la musique et de la danse - Salle d'Orgue (29)
12/07/2015 10:30 - 11:00
Cité de la musique et de la danse - Salle 23
Musicians / speakers
- GUSNAR PAWEL / Saxophone (Poland)
Program
- Small Sketch (2005) for soprano saxophone, tenor saxophone, and organ. (Miłosz Bembimow) / French premiere
- KOMEDitAtion (2009) for soprano saxophone, tenor saxophone, and organ. (Miłosz Bembimow)
- Fairytale Stories for alto saxophone and Saxophone Quartet (Krzysztof Herdzin)
- Polish Suite for alto saxophone solo and saxophone quartet (Krzysztof Herdzin)
Videos
