Sabine Meyer and sax stars scaled down showstoppers

WE all need a story to fire our imaginations and German clarinet star Sabine Meyer joined an unusual line-up for some ripping yarns of a different sort.

Sabine Meyer (seated with clarinet) and the Alliage Quintett opened Musica Viva’s 2018 season with a bang.

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WE all need a story to fire our imaginations and nobody knew that better than the great orchestral composers of the late 19th and 20th centuries.

For the French composer Paul Dukas it was Goethe’s poem about a work experience lad working with a musician which inspired his much-loved masterpiece, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice.

For Igor Stravinsky it was a hybrid of Russian folk tales which led to his ballet, The Firebird.

And for research chemist, teacher and founder of Russia’s first medical college for women, Alexander Borodin — who composed in his down time — it was the war between Prince Igor and the fierce nomadic Polovstian tribes that was the spark his great opera.

All these works are orchestral showpieces, so it was a big reach for them to be arranged and performed by a quintet of four saxophones and piano, joined by one of the world’s leading clarinetists for this Musica Viva season opener.

MAGIC

However, whatever shortcomings this listener might have felt were immediate allayed when the German-based Alliage Quintett launched into a fullbore performance of Leonard Bernstein’s Candide overture — one of many tributes this year to the great man’s centenary. The sound of the four saxes, led by Canadian Daniel Gauthier on soprano and augmented by Jang Eun Bae’s piano, was truly symphonic.

Even more impressive was the next piece, the Dukas, for which German clarinet star Sabine Meyer joined them to lend her “special touch of magic”, in Gauthier’s words.

All that was missing was the sight of Mickey Mouse trying to stop the self-replicating broom sticks from emptying pails of water

From the opening hesitant bass note from Sebastian Pottmeier’s baritone sax, the smile was firmly set on the face of the audience. In fact the smile never left as Meyer and company bubbled and wove deftly through this irrepressible score. All that was missing was the sight of Mickey Mouse trying to stop the self-replicating broom sticks from emptying pails of water in Walt Disney’s film Fantasia.

Five Pieces by Dmitri Shostakovich, spread over the two brackets, gave the audience a break from the full force of the six instruments and the chance to hear the instruments in smaller configurations, with Pottmeier and Simon Hanrath’s tenor saxophone combining winningly in the short Elegy.

MIRACULOUS

Darius Milhaud’s irresistible Scaramouche, based on a Moliere play and cleverly arranged by Pottmeier, closed the first half.

The highlight of the evening was the 20-minute arrangement by Sebastian Gottschick of Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite. Stripped back like this with just the piano filling in the rest of the orchestral parts made one realise what a miraculous composition it is.

Less satisfying, but superbly played, was the arrangement of Borodin’s Polotsvian Dances which closed the concert, and the lovely Nocturne which the composer recycled for his second string quartet was good to hear.

After the breakneck speed of the Presto finale there was no doubting that there would have to be an encore and the honours went to Bernstein again with a Formula 1 take on America from West Side Story.

The concert is repeated on Saturday, March 10, at 2pm at City Recital Hall Angel Place.

DETAILS

● CONCERT: Sabine Meyer and Alliage Quintett

● WHERE: City Recital Hall Angel Place

● WHEN: Monday, February 26