SAXOPHONE. BALLET. IMPRESSION.
It is well known how close Hungarian composer Péter Eötvös felt to jazz. The sound of the saxophone stimulated his musical imagination since his childhood. And even if the saxophone often played an important role in his orchestral scores, he composed a concerto for saxophone only in the final stage of his career, in 2021. His saxophone concerto ‘Focus’, whose title refers to filmmaking and photography, was first performed in Cologne, and Hungarian saxophonist Erzsébet Selejlo played this piece at its Hungarian premiere. This time, the audience will be able to listen to her play again, accompanied by the saxophone classic of Debussy’s ‘Rhapsody for Saxophone and Orchestra’, the orchestral version of which was completed in the late 1910s. The latter composition represents an exciting and diverse period in music history with two defining works of the era entitled Debussy’s ‘Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun’ and Stravinsky’s epoch-making ballet music titled ‘ “The Firebird” Suite’.
Claude Debussy: Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun
Claude Debussy: Rhapsody for Saxophone and Orchestra
Maurice Ravel: Rapsodie espagnole
Péter Eötvös: Focus – Concerto for Saxophone
Igor Stravinsky: “The Firebird” Suite
Conductor:
Domonkos Héja
Artists:
Erzsébet Selejlo (szaxofon)
Hungarian Radio Symphony Orchestra
Photo: Erzsébet Seleljo ©Zsófi Raffay