Brilliance for Alto Saxophone and Piano I. Déclamé (I. Gotkovsky). Scott Turpen/Theresa Bogard,

Brilliance for Alto Saxophone and Piano I. Déclamé Ida Gotkovsky Scott Turpen, saxophone Theresa Bogard, piano “It’s hard to say which came first: the virtuosic French School of wind playing, so often in service to light, insouciant moods and technical fireworks, or the music French composers have produced to match the consummate abilities of their wind players. Speaking of cross-pollination here would be stretch - you can’t separate the yeast dough from the butter in a croissant. But Ida Gotkovsky, echoing her teacher Olivier Messiaen, offers an idea relevant to our theme. Her goal, she said, is to create universal work containing a “unity of musical expression to cross the expanse of time. Surely this is the aim of many artists: to make work that, when encountered, suspends awareness of chronology, duration, and any other sort of linear thinking. The achievement of timelessness for both maker and recipient represents a crossing. The first movement of Brilliance is an announcement, a musical manifesto declaimed as if embedded with words. It quickly gives way to a movement changed with the naughty abandon of an escapee; “d’esinvolte“ may be translated as “frivolous,““cavalier,“ or even ärrogant. And although this romp is followed by a plaintive song, anyone familiar with French wind music knows that another chase scene won’t be far behind. The Finale finishes Gotkovsky’s piece with lightning. Promised, to be sure, but no less exciting. Like her contemporary Jindrich Feld, Gotkovsky has written several works for saxophone.“ Ann McCutchan Crossover ℗ 2009 ACA Digital Recording, Inc. Released on: 2009-07-01 Music Publisher: Music Dubois