Rhapsody is a collection of original works and commissioned pieces for saxophone and piano. One of the most prolific works for saxophone is Debussy’s Rhapsody which was the inspiration for this album. I first met Noriko Ogawa during a tour of Hong Kong in 2018 and following the trip we decided to record an album together. We then met in between lockdowns and remotely in 2020, discussing a concept for the album. Commissioning new music is very important to both of us and deciding on the composers fell into place very easily. Joseph Phibbs had written for Noriko before; Iain Farrington I have worked with many times and for a long time I have wanted to commission my school friend and colleague Jenni Watson. Each of the pieces on the album display the saxophone in different styles and moods, showcasing its versatility.

Huw Wiggin

Claude Debussy (1862-1918)
Rapsodie pour orchestra et saxophone

Claude Debussy was one of the earlier composers to bring the saxophone centre stage in his Rapsodie for ‘orchestra and saxophone’ (in that order), although his choice stemmed from financial necessity more than artistic innovation. The work was commissioned in 1901 by Elise Hall, dubbed ‘the saxophone lady’ by Debussy. Hall was a wealthy American musician and patron of the arts who had been born in Paris and who lived in Boston. She had taken up the saxophone at the recommendation of her physician husband, but was aghast at the lack of repertoire for her instrument. Debussy enthusiastically accepted the prepaid commission but struggled to complete it. Hall arrived in Paris to chase the work; a harried Debussy likened her to the looming Commendatore in Mozart’s Don Giovanni, adding that she was an “old bat who dresses like an umbrella”. Debussy never orchestrated the piece, but still sold it to the publisher Durand – he was paid twice for an incomplete commission. Eventually Jean Roger-Ducasse realised the orchestration and the work was premiered in 1919, by which time Debussy had died and Hall’s hearing had failed. We hear a further arrangement for saxophone and piano by Vincent David. Despite its difficult genesis, the Rapsodie has many of the hallmarks of Debussy’s style: rich whole-tone lines and harmonies, Spanish rhythms and, reflecting his affinity with wind instruments, mellifluous writing for the saxophone.

© Joanna Wyld, 2022

Joseph Phibbs (b.1974)
Night Paths (Rhapsody for alto saxophone and piano)

I’ve always felt the saxophone to be a deeply expressive instrument, yet one tinged with feelings of solitude, even loneliness. These qualities, combined with its urban, nocturnal associations (the busker on a street corner, or in the underground), find expression in this single movement work, whose free-flowing character and wide range of moods resembles a rhapsody. Within this continuous span there are five main sections: Passacaglia, Neon, Lumina, and Blues, followed by a short coda. The piano provides a range of backdrops – some frenetic, others very still – through which the saxophone passes.
Shortly after completing the piece, I came across a line by the writer Nicholas Heiney (1982-2006) which seemed to sum up the mood of piece perfectly: “Remember how the streets ring out for every soul that thought and felt and passed through them in weakness and in strength”.
Night Paths is dedicated with much admiration to Huw Wiggin, who commissioned the work.

Joseph Phibbs

Iain Farrington (b.1977)
Paganini Patterns

Paganini Patterns is a three-section piece based on the 24th Caprice by the renowned virtuoso violinist Niccolò Paganini. It was composed in 2022 for Huw Wiggin and Noriko Ogawa. Paganini’s original piece consists of a theme and variations, and has inspired a multitude of reworkings, arrangements and new compositions. Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a theme of Paganini is one of the most famous examples, and one that ties in with the Rhapsody theme of this album. While many of the pieces based on Paganini’s theme use variation form, Paganini Patterns uses the melodic theme as the principal material for a short Sonata-type work. There is a strong jazz character to the music, well-suited to the soprano saxophone and piano. The first section has sonata-form characteristics, using a first subject group, development, recapitulation, and coda. A funk rhythmic and harmonic groove gives the music its energy. The second section takes the listener into a world of the night-club, with a smoky after-hours atmosphere. Paganini’s theme is transformed into a bluesy and wistful ballad. The third and final section uses the main theme interspersed with free saxophone solos, in a jazz rondo form. A walking bass and jabbed chords in the piano drive the jazz mood throughout.

Iain Farrington

Eric Coates (1886-1957)
Rhapsody

Known to many for By the Sleepy Lagoon – the theme used for BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs – British composer Eric Coates reflected and to some extent defined the music of the 1920s and 1930s. His output has undergone both renaissance and re-evaluation in recent years, when ‘light music’ has increasingly been recognised not as some lesser satellite to the more serious classical repertoire, but as a highly skilful and hugely pleasurable genre in its own right. Eric Coates was a fine viola player, and his experience playing in various prestigious orchestras gave him a thorough grounding in creating orchestral balance and colour. He was also practical, often writing for the recording studio and radio. Coates’s virtuoso Saxo – Rhapsody (1936) is one of the major works for saxophone of this era, when the instrument, still relatively new and so integral to jazz, was enjoying the spotlight in the classical arena as well. The work opens with Coates’s characteristically genial harmonies before the saxophone unfurls a rich array of melodic material, ranging from wistful anticipation to sophisticated showmanship.

© Joanna Wyld, 2022

Jennifer Watson (b.1985)
Rhapsody on an Echo Chamber

Rhapsody on an Echo Chamber is a reflection on isolation, particularly in areas of natural beauty, such as caves or forests. Such isolation can lead to a myriad of thoughts and emotions across a spectrum of both positive and negative outlooks, but often results in somewhat of a personal echo chamber once certain ideas, themes and motifs begin to crystallise and repeat themselves, without outside influence to sway or broaden our way of thinking. We can begin to convince ourselves that our inner voice is true, or that our course of action is the correct one to take. This too can be a positive or negative experience, perhaps depending on what the subconscious was already thinking before being alone with thoughts in an open space.
The piece, in three continuous movements, is a constant, journeying narrative that plays with the representation of repeated ideas across a spectrum of emotions.

Jennifer Watson

Franz Liszt (1811-1886)
Hungarian Rhapsody No.2 in C-sharp minor

Liszt reflected his nationality in various ways, incorporating gypsy music and Hungarian folksong into some works, and in others paying tribute to significant Hungarian figures. Liszt renewed his interest in gypsy and Hungarian folk music in 1840, visiting a gypsy dwelling and writing a vivid account of the people he encountered there, as well as listening to a number of outstanding gypsy bands. These experiences inspired a series of pieces called Magyar dallok (‘Hungarian National Melodies’), which Liszt later revised and published under the more poetic title Hungarian Rhapsodies (1851-53). The Hungarian Rhapsody No.2 in C-sharp minor is the most famous of the set and is dedicated to László Teleki, a writer and statesman. The piece is derived from the Hungarian csárdás dance style, opening with a stately ‘lassan’ section, solemn and proud, followed by the lively, rhythmic ‘friska’, which steadily gains momentum. The piece was so popular after its publication that it was quickly arranged for different combinations and has since been heard on numerous instruments – including, thanks to Iain Farrington, the saxophone.

© Joanna Wyld, 2022