This winter we have seen an impressive succession of premieres of new Danish works – played by both Danish and foreign orchestras and ensembles. There are a whole three saxophone concertos among the new works; perhaps a coincidence, perhaps a trend – but at all events it has inspired us to make the saxophone the soloist in this issue of Notations.
How do composers see the saxophone as an instrument? We have asked Svend Hvidtfelt Nielsen, Karsten Fundal and Per Nørgård, and then we take a closer look at the premieres of Niels Rosing-Schow’s “Concerto for Saxophone” and Anders Koppel’s “Concerto no. 2 for Saxophone and Orchestra”. The two saxophone concertos were given their respective first performances at a week’s interval by Jeanette Balland with the Danish national Symphony Orchestra/DR and by Benjamin Koppel with the Odense Symphony Orchestra.
But this issue of Notations is about more than saxophones: among other things we present a new column of news from Wilhelm Hansen’s sister companies, beginning with a presentation of G. Schirmer in New York and an overview of the most important new items from their composers. New York was also visited by the composer Ole Buck in the autumn of 2003, when the New Yorkers made the acquaintance with his work “Flower Ornament Music” – read Ole’s letter home from the event.
With this and many other features we hope that this Notations will give you an informative, inspiring and different perspective on works and composers published by Wilhelm Hansen.
Enjoy!
