It's high time those of us who play classical music on saxophone put our talents on display. There's a very active thread in Misc. Saxophone Discussion where people post clips of themselves - it's one of the busiest areas on this board, other than the buy/sell postings.
I'm starting this thread because I'm personally interested in hearing what other participants in this area sound like.
The only thing that I ask of you is this: if you're going to take part here, be prepared to post. I've got no time for armchair critics.
Here's the first movement of the Albinoni Sonata St. Marc on soprano with piano accompaniment.
My quartet played the entirety of the Maslanka Recitation Book during an April recital. We are a developing undergraduate quartet, so any thoughts on the group dynamic and how we did are extremely valuable to us. This is an amateur recording done on a single USB mic, so keep that in mind...
My quartet played the entirety of the Maslanka Recitation Book during an April recital. We are a developing undergraduate quartet, so any thoughts on the group dynamic and how we did are extremely valuable to us. This is an amateur recording done on a single USB mic, so keep that in mind...
Bluegrass style! What you have to do is walk up to the mic when it's your turn to play a solo.
I've listened only to parts I and II so far ... will try to get to the others later. I found them quite enjoyable (I like Maslanka a lot as a composer). The individual instruments sound good; the soprano tone in particular is polished and lovely. The style of your performance also feels appropriate for the music: restrained, but not lifeless. It's hard to get a sense of the balance within the quartet because of the nature of the recording. For passages that I suppose were played at p to mf, the blend is pretty good, although the soprano tends to dominate. For the f and ff sections, the inner voices tend to drown out the soprano and especially the baritone. But I imagine the group dynamics would be quite different if I were sitting there listening to you play live. Mic placement can be everything in an amateur recording. We once recorded a saxophone quartet concerto in a live performance with our concert band. The saxes lined up "vertically," into a row of seats heading toward the back of the stage, rather than across the front of the stage. Of course, the microphone was at the front of the stage. The resulting blend on the recording was 60% soprano, 20% alto (me), 10% tenor and 10% baritone. Terrible.
Here's a clip from a concert given on 09/13/2014. A little Piazzolla with David Chatterton, cello - Sarah Marchitelli, alto saxophone - Kate Parker, piano - and me (Jake Swanson), soprano saxophone. Hope you enjoy it!
This is not "classical music" but it´s a classical sax player playing a piece that he loves ;-) I guess it´s ok to post it here. This is my "therapy jazz playing"...
I posted this elsewhere on the forum, but wasn't getting any responses. This is my son, Benjamin, playing the second movement (Modere) from Darius Milhaud's Scaramouche. He is working this up and will perform it along with one of the other two movements for ISSMA (Indiana State School Music Association) competition in February (and hopefully at state in March). He is currently a freshman in high school. This was his first public performance of the movement (contemplative music at church). We hope to find a good accompanist soon, as our preferred choice is not available this year. Any constructive feedback is appreciated.
I posted this elsewhere on the forum, but wasn't getting any responses. This is my son, Benjamin, playing the second movement (Modere) from Darius Milhaud's Scaramouche. He is working this up and will perform it along with one of the other two movements for ISSMA (Indiana State School Music Association) competition in February (and hopefully at state in March). He is currently a freshman in high school.
Very nice sound, especially for a young teenager. Whatever he's been doing with respect to tonal quality, vibrato, and dynamics, he should keep doing. It's producing results. My only suggestion would be to work on phrasing and line, either with his teacher or by listening to recordings of good classical players. The goal is for the music to flow continuously in the listener's experience, rather than feeling segmented. (I did make an allowance for the fact that the piano part is missing.) That's a matter of subtle improvement, however, and I have to say that I found this particular performance not only impressive, but enjoyable as well, which is not always the case with "Please critique this" recordings.
Hi everyone! I recently had my master's recital at Eastman. The recital is a bit of a different concept than traditional recitals, so the entire thing is in one video. If you're interested, you can check it out here:
Forgot to mention, the pieces are....
Dream - John Cage
Trou Noir - Robert Lemay
Silence for a disturbed yell - Francois Rosse
Sequenza VIIb - Luciano Berio
Sonata - William Albright
Wonderfully expressive with great tone control and consistency. Very nice! That sounds like a very challenging piece.
If you wouldn't mind, would you provide some constructive feedback for the video I posted on 12/8/14? I think Benjamin would appreciated any helpful advice - and especially so from a music ed major and saxophonist. I'm a cellist by training, so there's only so much I can provide for him.
This is an arrangement of Gustav Holst's Second Suite in F for saxophones, done by Brian Herald and multi-track recorded by me. The arrangement calls for 2 soprano, 3 alto, 2 tenor, 2 baritone, and 1 bass saxophone. The soprano 1 part was played on a sopranino saxophone in movements 1 and 4. All Bueschers too!
Here's a performance from the recent United States Navy International Saxophone Symposium. Originally written for two trumpets, Epithalamium by Charles Wuorinen makes a nice duet for saxophones. Thanks for listening - hope you enjoy!
Here's a clip from Benjamin's performance at ISSMA Regional competition this afternoon. This is Brazileira, the third movement of Darius Milhaud's Scaramouche. Chara Sonntag accompanying. Next stop, state level competition at the end of the month. He was acutely aware of his timing and other errors, but otherwise was fairly pleased.
Initial Impressions (2014) is a three-movement work composed by Dan Knorr. Written for Soprano and Alto Saxophones, this piece utilizes the physical geometric shapes of the letters "S & J" to create melodic motives.
I. In Reverse
II. Vulnerable
III. Calligraphy
If you enjoy this piece and performance, please consider "liking" our group "Decho Ensemble" on Facebook, found at the link below! www.facebook.com/dechoensemble
This is a recording from my student recital about a week ago (sophomore in college). I played the second and third movements from Milhaud's Scaramouche (had to leave the first out due to time restraints)
Performed Gershwin's Three Preludes with a string quintet and alto sax (arr. Jonah Blum) in a recent recital, thought I would share this "lighter" music!
I'm finally posting the recordings from my MM Recital a year ago (04/12/14). This is one of the selections. Aeolian Song from Concertino for Alto Saxophone by Warren Benson. Enjoy!
Also, I have just "re-vamped" my YouTube Channel any feedback on the Channel itself would be greatly appreciated! Thank you.
That was quite nice Jacob, I've never heard a recording of the piece before. I also enjoyed many of your other videos, especially the Shepherd's Hey quartet with Wildy Zumwalt.
This is my multi-track recording of Paul Cohen's adaptation of William Schuman's "When Jesus Wept" - SSAAATTBBsCbs
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