New Century Saxophone Quartet: The Art of Fugue

New Century Saxophone Quartet
The Art of Fugue: Concert Project

“A revelation. … This is no ordinary recording but a devotedly virtuoso traversal of some of the most mind-bogglingly ingenious and inspired counterpoint ever committed to manuscript.”
—International Record Review

“They combine great technique and elegant musicianship with a wonderful sense of chamber music.”
—Fanfare

Recording available from Channel Classics (CCS SA 20204)

In 1994, the New Century Saxophone Quartet and the Juilliard String Quartet performed on consecutive nights at the Ambassador Auditorium in Los Angeles. In a backstage conversation, the Juilliard’s cellist, Joel Krosnick, suggested that New Century look at Bach’s “Art of Fugue,” feeling it might be a good match for the sonority of a saxophone quartet. New Century began performing a selection of the contrapuncti that comprise Bach’s final work in 1997. On further research, they found that the music, exactly as Bach wrote it, fits the ranges of the four saxophones perfectly, and in 1999, the Quartet’s recording company, Channel Classics, agreed to issue a recording of the entire opus. After three years of study and preparation, including a series of intensive sessions with the English Baroque flutist and performance practice expert, Stephen Preston, the music is to be recorded in Holland in November 2002, with a release planned by September 2003.

Bach, an inveterate transcriber of his and others’ music, but also a composer of exacting standards who was a pioneer in the delineation of issues of instrumentation, ornamentation, and interpretation, did not tell us what instruments he had in mind for “The Art of Fugue.” It is widely accepted that Bach meant this music to transcend any specific boundary of instrumentation, leaving it to future generations to bring to life in any medium that does justice to what is now widely recognized as the greatest exploration of the contrapuntal art and one of the crown jewels of Western music.

That “The Art of Fugue,” fits a saxophone quartet should not be surprising, as it is the only “consort” among modern ensembles: a set of instruments built along identical physical and acoustic designs comprising soprano, alto, tenor, and baritone voices. That makes it possible for the New Century Saxophone Quartet to play what Bach wrote, note for note, without compromise — no transcriptions, no displacement of octaves or of musical lines from one voice to another, no doctoring of the instruments. Contrast that to the modern string quartet, with its two sopranos (the violins), alto (the viola), and baritone (cello) voices — but no tenor — and the very significant differences in design of the three instruments, and it becomes very clear why a saxophone quartet is ideally suited to deliver the perfect contrapuntal blend that Bach envisioned.

“The Art of Fugue” may be programmed in its entirety as a full-length concert. Portions of Bach’s work may also be programmed in combination with a variety of New Century commissions and other original works for saxophone quartet. The New Century Saxophone Quartet has also developed an optional multimedia project for “The Art of Fugue” in collaboration with Misha Films.