Quartetto Saxofonia:
sax soprano Gianfranco Berardi, sax tenore Luca Quadrelli, sax baritono Riccardo Righi, sax contralto Gilberto Monetti

Curriculum

         The activity of the group starts beck in 1973 under the name of “Nuovo Quartetto d’Ance”.

         The ensemble comprehends the family of the saxophones, that’s to say soprano, alto, tenor and baritone and was among the very first ones of this kind in Italy.

         The components of the quartet start since the beginning a pioneeristic and scrupolous work, reading the more significant scores written for such an ensemble, not omitting original arrangements of pieces composed for different personnels.

         Important contemporary composers dedicated new compositions to the quartet, enriching the pre-existent literature.

         The group recorded various live and studio session distributed in Italy by Fonit-Cetra and Ecosound.

         Recently, the ensemble changed its name in “Quartetto Saxofonia”, remaining an important point of reference for chamber music in Italy.

Presentation of CD

         It was like the discovery of America: Columbus had hoped to reach the fabulous Indies of Marco Polo and instead he discovered the New World.

         The same thing happened to the famous band conductor of the Opera House of Paris, Adolphe Sax (1814 – 1894) who had intended to create an instrument which could homogeneously connect the brass family with the woodwinds and instead invented a new family of wind instruments that he rightly named after himself: Saxophones. This family displays remarkable resources and inimitable tone colour features and the sax ensemble combines its measured historic literature with pleasant and sometimes bold transcriptions. This compilation does not aim at presenting philologically rigorous performances, but is meant to provide a historic excursus ranging from Domenico Scarlatti to Vivaldi, from the youngest of Bach’s sons Giovanni Cristiano (who was a pupil of Father Martini) to Rossini, including both expressly written pages and entertainment music.

         I would say that listening to the notes of Scarlatti’s iridescent keyboard through the tone colour of the saxophone has a certain effect. And Bach’s symphony is also appropriate with its fluent musicality pervaded with researched classicism. The Singelée Quartet is extremely interesting. It was the first piece of music to be expressly written for this family and it shows a writing ability of great effect for the four reed instruments.

         One of Rossini’s most valuable pieces was necessary to represent the pleasing element of entertainment. In fact, as everybody knows, he had a true passion for wind instruments as his father was an appreciated brass virtuoso (and an Academician of the Bologna Philarmonic Society).

                                                                   Adriano Cavicchi