AN AMERICAN IN PARIS
Calefax Reed Quintet
Upper Chapel, Sheffield
Monday 22 January 2024, 7.00pm
HANDEL Suite for keyboard No.5 The Harmonious Blacksmith (9’)
FRANCK Chorale No.2 (9’)
ALKAN Comme le vent (5’)
DEBUSSY Préludes for piano (selection) (10’)
GERMANUS Le tourne-disque antique (7’)
DVOŘÁK String Quintet No.3 Op.97 (extracts) (15’)
GERSHWIN An American in Paris (13’)
Saxophones, clarinets, oboe and bassoon combine to make the sensational sound of Calefax, five exceptional Dutch musicians whose lively and entertaining performances have won them loyal fans all over the world. George Gershwin’s ‘An American in Paris’ is a vivid portrait of the Roaring ’20s, and in Calefax’s unique arrangement the musical colours of Paris are even more vibrant. They’ll also be treating us to music ranging from the joy of Handel to the rich melodies of Dvořák and the shimmering beauty of Debussy.
Watch a gorgeous example of Calefax’s music, in their trailer from their recent album:
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View the brochure for our Sheffield 2024 concerts online here or download it below.
DownloadHANDEL George Frideric, Suite for keyboard No.5 The Harmonious Blacksmith (arr. for Calefax)
When Calefax was founded in 1985, the available repertoire was virtually non-existent for such an unconventional ensemble: a reed quintet, comprising oboe, clarinet, saxophone, bass clarinet and bassoon. As a consequence, it was necessary to commission brand new works and a large number of arrangements. The earliest music in the present programme is a transcription of music originally written for harpsichord by George Frideric Handel (1685–1759): the Air and Variations from his Keyboard Suite No. 5, known as ‘The Harmonious Blacksmith’ and first published in 1720. As an inveterate recycler and rearranger of his own music for different instrumental combinations, Handel would surely have been delighted to find this work reimagined for reed instruments.
© Nigel Simeone
FRANCK César, Chorale No.2 (arr. for Calefax)
César Franck (1822–1890) served as the organist of Sainte-Clotilde in Paris for over 30 years at the same time as composing utterly distinctive chamber music (Violin Sonata, Piano Quintet) and orchestral works (Symphony, Symphonic Variations). His music for organ is particularly significant and he composed his Three Chorales for organ in the last year of his life. The organist Dame Gillian Weir has described the Second Chorale as ‘a giant passacaglia, suggesting the tolling of a great bell as it moves from sombre genesis through an avalanche of sound to its peaceful end.’
© Nigel Simeone
ALKAN Charles-Valentin, Comme le vent (arr. for Calefax)
Charles-Valentin Alkan (1813–1888) was a prodigy, described as a child with ‘amazing abilities’ at his audition for the Paris Conservatoire in 1820. In the 1830s he established friendships with Liszt and Chopin and gave concerts with both of them. After experiencing bitter professional disappointments in the late 1840s, Alkan became a virtual recluse between 1850 and 1873 when he reappeared unexpectedly and his playing excited a younger generation including Saint-Saëns. An extraordinary pianist (Liszt said that Alkan possessed the finest technique he had ever known) he was also a strikingly original composer. ‘Comme le vent’ is the first of his 12 études in all the minor keys, first published in 1857 during his years of retreat. Marked prestissimamente it is a dizzying tour de force.
© Nigel Simeone
DEBUSSY Claude, Piano Preludes (selection) (arr. for Calefax)
Claude Debussy (1862–1918) composed twenty-four préludes in all, published in two books in 1910 and 1913. Unusually, the titles are only printed at the end of each piece, underlining Debussy’s wish that this was music to be understood on its own terms as well as through descriptive or programmatic means. Each of them is a beautifully conceived entity: some are tender or alluring, some are capricious, while others are flamboyant and even elemental. But whether taken individually or collectively (Debussy himself was happy either way, often playing individual préludes in recitals), they represent the composer at his most distinctive.
© Nigel Simeone
GERMANUS Sander, Le tourne-disque antique
Sander Germanus (b.1972) completed Le Tourne-disque Antique (‘The Antique Gramophone’) in 2001, specially commissioned by the Calefax Reed Quintet. Opening with increasingly agitated syncopated rhythms, the title is perhaps an allusion to the kind of dance music that might be heard on a wind-up gramophone before it runs down to a standstill at the end.
© Nigel Simeone
DVOŘÁK Antonin, String Quintet No.3 Op.97 (extracts) (arr. for Calefax)
Antonín Dvořák (1841–1904) composed his String Quintet Op.97 in 1893, starting it a month after completing the New World Symphony. The two works share many of the same characteristics, including a fondness for melodies based on pentatonic (black-note) scales, syncopated rhythms, melodies inspired by Dvořák’s discovery of African-American spirituals and hints of the Native American music which he heard during his stay in Spillville, Iowa in Summer 1893.
© Nigel Simeone
GERSHWIN George, An American in Paris (arr. for Calefax)
When George Gershwin (1898–1937) introduced An American in Paris he wrote that ‘My purpose here is to portray the impressions of an American visitor in Paris as he strolls about the city, listens to the various street noises, and absorbs the French atmosphere.’ On the title page of the manuscript, Gershwin called it ‘a tone poem for orchestra’, adding that it was ‘begun early in 1928 and finished November 18, 1928.’ Mixing French touches and American elements Gershwin himself said ‘It’s a humorous piece, nothing solemn about it. It’s not intended to draw tears. If it pleases audiences as a light, jolly piece, a series of impressions musically expressed, it succeeds.’
© Nigel Simeone
