Sinoidal

As anticipated, tonight's musical entertainment was far superior to last night's. As soon as I saw the poster for a saxophone quartet a couple of weeks ago, I put it in my diary. The show was called "De la copia al original" (hopefully you can work that out) -- works that had originally been composed for other instruments (mostly keyboard) arranged for four saxophones. Actually they started with an intriguing work for saxophone composed by contemporary Italian Salvatore Sciarrino ... the four saxophones produced strange bubbling noises as if underwater. I've never heard anything quite like it. 

Other works were by Ligeti, Bach, Scarlatti and Granados. The Scarlatti sonatas were particularly fascinating; I'm very fond of their percussive quality on the piano, but they sound completely different when played on wind instruments by four people as opposed to one -- hard to even recognise ones you know. Have a listen -- I really liked them (you will also find them on Spotify).

It was a shame there were only 22 people in the large auditorium at the Casa de la Cultura, which has a capacity of about 300. But it gave the musicians a chance to engage with the audience. I only took a couple of photos; I chose the one in which José Miguel is urging us to buy their CD, rather than one of them playing, because you get a good view of his baritone saxophone -- not an instrument you often see or hear. Note that classical musicians know you don't need amplification for brass instruments unless you are playing in a football stadium.