Attractive musical fare offered by saxophonists
Maxine Matthews and David Salleras as well as pianist Christopher Duigan. (Review
by Michael Green)
The saxophone has come a long way since the
Belgian Adolphe Sax invented it in 1846.
His intention was to produce something
between a woodwind and a brass instrument, something that would sound good in
military bands. It popularity spread rapidly. Jazz musicians took to the
saxophone like ducks to water, and since the 20th century it has been used
quite extensively by classical composers, including Debussy, Hindemith, Ravel,
Prokofiev, Shostakovich, Milhaud, Villa-Lobos and Glazunov.
In spite of all this, a classical saxophone
recital is a rarity in the concert hall, and a performance by two saxophone
players is even more unusual. This was the attractive musical fare offered to
the Friends of Music at the Durban Jewish Centre when the saxophonists Maxine
Matthews and David Salleras joined forces with the pianist Christopher Duigan.
Maxine Matthews is a young South African
and is due to further her studies in the United States next year. David
Salleras is Spanish and an experienced performer. Christopher Duigan is, of
course, a South African based in Pietermaritzburg.
Their programme consisted mainly of music
that is not well known. They started with a lively composition by Jules
Demersseman (1833-1866), a Frenchman who was an early saxophone enthusiast, and
continued with a three-movement trio by Francis Poulenc (1899-1963). This was a
transcription of a work originally written for piano, oboe and bassoon, and it
was typically Poulenc music: sophisticated, witty, tuneful, frisky. It was most
enjoyable.
David Salleras, who comes from Barcelona,
contributed two of his own works for solo saxophone, both clever novelties
which showed his mastery of his instrument. They had a Spanish flavour and one
was accompanied by foot-stamping by the player.
The three performers jointly presented
pieces by Astor Piazzolla, the Brazilian king of the tango, and by
Jean-Baptiste Singelee, a 19th century Belgian composer who was a friend of
Adolphe Sax. And Maxine Matthews and Christopher Duigan played two movements of
Darius Milhaud’s well-known Scaramouche suite.
High points of the concert were brilliant
piano solos from Christopher Duigan: Ravel’s Alborado del gracioso and the three Danzas Argentinas by Alberto Ginastera, who died in 1983.
The Prelude Performer of the evening,
sponsored by the National Lottery Distribution Trust Fund, was a young
trumpeter, Celukuthula Ngema. Accompanied by Bobbie Mills at the piano, he
showed skill and poise in playing two movements of a delightful trumpet
concerto by the Austrian composer Johann Nepomuk Hummel (1778-1837). - Michael
Green
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