Sarah -

Dr. Z mentioned a new Russian concerto written for him to me over the summer, but the name of the composer escapes me. Email him.

All sorts of Gubaidulina music with saxophones, if you're looking for some chamber music. The Bassoon Duo Sonata that Delangle transcribed is a personal favorite.

Was Gretchaninov Russian? Nice, older, easier piece that is always worth playing.

 

Smirnov - Evening Song for tenor sax and piano is a favourite of mine. Another to add is his wife Elena Firsova's sax quartet - Far Away.
There is a lot of good Russian music for sax. Get into it!!!

 

This Delangle recording would be a great starting point. Besides the Denisov asx/piano Sonata, it also includes the asx/cello Sonata (as good or better than the asx/pno piece, IMO), the Gubaidulina Duo Sonata, and others.

 

Alexander Tcherepnin's Sonatine Sportive is a fun Russian piece of moderate difficulty.

 

Sorry to name drop but I was talking to Dimitri Smirnov at a concert two weeks ago and he told me he had composed a work for alto saxophone, oboe and cello.

 

I heard the piece earlier in the year. A nice addition to chamber repertoire.
The Delangle cd is a terrific reference. Also check out dutch sax player Filip Davidse
http://www.filipdavidse.com/ He has a cd Soviet Saxophone, as well as a myspace with sound samples.

 

Stacy Maugans wrote her dissertation on Russian saxophone and might be a good person to contact. I believe she is currently teaching at Valparaiso University. I also remember getting a bunch of Russian lit from John Sampen that had something to do with a competition in Moscow about ten years ago. You might contact him to see if he still has the rep list.

 

I guess where we lack in solo rep., we make up for it in Orchestral rep. (prokofiev, shostakovich, etc.)...

 

Thank you everyone this is very helpful.

 

I'm sure you already know, but Glazunov was Russian.

 

Glazunov was Russian, but lived in Paris. I've always played/interpreted/thought of the Glazunov as a French concerto by a Parisian who was a Russian ex-pat. But now we're opening a whole can of worms...

 

I couldn't disagree with you more. The opening section of the saxophone solo hints at a russian chorale ornamented slightly and the tone of the work is so different from something like the Ibert that I really couldn't consider them in the same category.

 

I don't know how heavy of lit you are looking for, but Denisov has a playful little piece entitled Deux Pieces

 

Russian saxophonist Alexey Volkov released at least 2 CDs of Russian music for saxo, and he also appears on some other composer CDs. I believe Volkov was a Londeix student at one point.

 

Also research saxophonists Lev Mikhailov and Margarita Shaposhnikova, two relatively important Russian saxophonists. Also, Sergey Kolesov (the Dinant 2006 winner) is Russian and communicates in English. You should friend him on facebook and write to him, see if he has any suggestions. Very nice guy, and I'm sure he'd be happy to help.

 

Angel, do you know where I might be able to find said cd's?

And I always thought of the Glazunov as more french as well

 

I tend to interpret the Glazunov rather romantically, much more in a Russian than French vein (in the way that Glazunov as a Russian was more of a 19th century romantic composer compared to everything else that was going on in the early-mid twentieth century).

 

I really hesitate to ask, but I know my musicology professors would be all over this. What is Russian music? What is French music? And what does it mean to interpret something 'romantically'? These horrendously vague terms are preventing any real discourse.

PS - +1 for Gubaidulina.

 

And what does it mean to interpret something 'romantically'? These horrendously vague terms are preventing any real discourse.

Hi Sean, I think the problem is that the term Romantic is borrowed from the visual art world. It is a long time since I studied this but in the traditional art world it would be Romantic as opposed to Classical. I remember reading that Romantic would mean more related to nature (for instance German culture in the early 19th century), rather than imposing human order on the natural world. It could very loosely be expressed as organic versus geometric. These terms are also used in ballet where you get both Classical and Romantic ballets.
Certainly I think the word Romantic is confusing because we now have romantic films and romantic comedies, which are to do with romance in the sense of being emotionally attracted to someone. However the artistic meaning is not really related to this sense. No doubt someone could give much better examples but I would suggest that Schumann should be interpreted romantically and Haydn classically, even though Schumann used classical forms.

 

I fear that I have inadvertently forced you into proving my point. All of these terms are simply too broad. Furthermore, it is disastrous even in casual musical conversation to instruct someone to play something 'romantically'.

 

Sean, I understand where you're coming from, that these terms are rather broad. How could you describe, in a sense, what is "French" music of the time, etc? With that said, I'm mostly thinking with my ears in this case. Just a casual listen to the glazunov and the ibert, written only about a year apart, reveals huge differences in scoring, tone colors used, style of writing, etc. The Ibert reminds me of other French saxophone works, the Dubois Concerto, the Dubois qtet, etc. whereas the glazunov tends to at the very least remind of german music. However, the chorale tune used at the beginning of the glazunov hints at its Russian roots. Sure, none of this is "definitive", just my opinions based on what I hear. I do feel there is a significant amount of evidence aurally to tell me that this work is not by a French composer, or quasi-French composer. Again, I would draw this from just listening to all music of that time period, and drawing some general conclusions based on the geography of where the works were written.

 

As soon as I hit the post button, I knew it was a mistake to bring it up. And yes, these are all very vague terms we're throwing around here. None the less, the ending is French to my ears. It's French the way Florent Schmitt or Benjamin Godard are French, rather than the gaiety of Ibert.