Many people know the saxophone primarily as a jazz instrument and associate it with America. Yet it was actually invented in Belgium in the 1840s. It was initially—and, in a sense, it has always remained—a quintessentially French instrument, championed by many French composers including Debussy and Ravel.

The saxophone, as developed by Adolphe Sax, is not one instrument but a whole set of instruments.  Saxophones come in many different sizes from soprano to bass—each with its own distinctive sound.  The sax, as it is often called in short, is usually classified as a woodwind instrument, since it has a single reed similar to the clarinet.  Yet its body is made of brass, so it can be considered as a kind of hybrid between the woodwind and the brass families.

French composer Henri Tomasi, who wrote concertos for almost every woodwind and brass instrument, dedicated his saxophone concerto to Maurice Mule (1901-2001), one of the most prominent classical saxophone players of the 20th century.  Two basic moods alternate in the two movements of the concerto:  one solemn, grandiose and sometimes funereal, and one energetic, animated and brilliant.  Tomasi often uses chordal progressions in which all the voices move in parallel motion—a technique that originated with Debussy.  

The concerto opens with a slow introduction in a serious mood, which yields—after only a few measures—to a perky Allegro written (mostly) in an asymmetrical 5/4 meter.  At the center of the movement, we hear a virtuoso cadenza followed by an excited second Allegro.

The second movement bears the title “Giration,” and indeed, the music proceeds through many twists and turns, through slower episodes and moments of high drama, before it reaches its animated coda.  Yet the very last measures sound, once more, as a solemn proclamation.

— Peter Laki