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Bass saxophone and Finland's Independence

6K views 12 replies 7 participants last post by  MattiL 
#1 ·
One of the five bass saxophones in Finland was spotted today in Helsinki Concert Hall. A rare animal in a symphony. The Radio Symphony Orchestra (RSO) held its annual Independence Day Matinee there and featured a newly commissioned work, "Karawane" by Esa-Pekka Salonen.

"Karawane" is composed for choir and full (very full) orchestra. It is based on Hugo Ball's Da-da poem, also called 'Sound Poetry'. The listening experience was very special, to say the least. Characteristic was using very low sounds. Hence the bass saxophone was competently assisting tuba, bass clarinet and contrabassoon. The choir was amazing. There were no lyrics per se. More and less they were singing (or yelling) syncopated syllables.

Esa-Pekka Salonen is perhaps nowadays the best known Finnish orchestral conductor and composer world-wide. He is currently Principal Conductor and Artistic Director of the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Conductor Laureate of the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

As an encore the RSO performed Finlandia by J. Sibelius. Very appropriate today depicting brilliantly Finland's struggle to gain her
Independence.
 
#8 ·
I live in a city of about one million people which is, to be kind, not well known for its music scene yet I personally know of four (mine included) in town. I'm shocked that there are so few in a European country as I always thought that they were, comparatively, falling off of trees in Europe.
 
#12 ·
I can locate three: Tampere (old Conn), Mäntyharju and my living room at Pori (modern Keilwerths).
......
Thanks for your post Hermanni, I envy you for your Keilwerth bass :twisted:

Do you know the owners of the other two? Where do you play you bass sax, in a band?

You may want to open a SOTW photo album for it: http://forum.saxontheweb.net/album.php

 
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