[JoAnnPeeler]

I have watched this YouTube video several times and it never gets old. This is quite simple the best performance of Pequeña Czarda I have been able to find. Maria Gmyrek is a joy to listen to. I love both jazz and classical saxophone, but I think this performance tilts my admiration toward classical. Plus, I'm happy to see someone using the Yanagisawa AWO10 for a classical performance.

 

[JoAnnPeeler]

As an observation, at around 5:35 in the video plays some phrases that are answered by what I assume is a phrase articulated using slap tonguing! Most other performances I've heard just rely on the sound of the keys being forced down for the notes. Maybe I've lived a sheltered life, but this is my first encounter of someone using slap tonguing in a classical performance. I thought it was a really cool choice. Maybe she is copying someone else's performance that I've never heard but it really added to the performance.

 

[hakukani]

As an observation, at around 5:35 in the video plays some phrases that are answered by what I assume is a phrase articulated using slap tonguing! Most other performances I've heard just rely on the sound of the keys being forced down for the notes. Maybe I've lived a sheltered life, but this is my first encounter of someone using slap tonguing in a classical performance. I thought it was a really cool choice. Maybe she is copying someone else's performance that I've never heard but it really added to the performance.

Slap tongue is written into the cadenza of the Ibert Concertina.

That said, the piece was originally written for sax and piano, and later transcribed for orchestra and sax. Key slaps don't really project as well in a concert hall vs. a recital hall. I think perhaps the slap tongue was added for that reason.

Personally, I think it works better as a piano/sax piece. I really enjoy the Arno Bornkamp version. I believe he also plays a yani, but not sure of the model.

 

[JoAnnPeeler]

Thanks for that bit of info. I've never seen the music for this piece as I've only recently been introduced to it. A couple of the other performances I saw did not seem to use slap tonguing. Or at least it didn't come through on the recording. I would love to see that cadenza.

 

[hakukani]

There is a youtube of the composer playing it, with the score as the video. When he gets to the cadenza, the music has the stop, followed by ad. lib cadenza, followed by the last run before plunging back to the piece.

In the Bornkamp recording, he treats the cadenza as almost an afterthought. I have a feeling that Ms. Gymrek wrote her own, based on the recording of Iturralde, or perhaps the orchestrator did.

 

[JoAnnPeeler]

Another interesting take on this piece performed as a duet with Claude Delangle and Juan Antonio Ramírez.

 

[LostConn]

Personally, I think it works better as a piano/sax piece. I really enjoy the Arno Bornkamp version. I believe he also plays a yani, but not sure of the model.

Bornkamp's alto is a Buffet. He did play a Yanagisawa soprano for a long time.