United Kingdom Various: RWCMD Saxophone Choir and other musicians / Gerard McChrystal (saxophone, director). Dora Stoutzker Hall, Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, Cardiff, 28.3.2025. (GP)
David Beltran – Obertura
Nina Martin – Okay then
Edmund Joliffe – Breathe
Giacomo Aggas – Firefly
Mark David Bowen – Bounce, Wave, Buzz, Rave
Stephen Bryant – Dusk
Bernstein (arr. Eddie Chung) – Candide (overture)
Saxophone students at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama are fortunate to work with Gerard McChrystal, a saxophonist with a considerable reputation both as a soloist and as an ensemble player. Born in Derry, he studied at London’s Guildhall School of Music and later at Northwestern University Chicago, with the great Fred Henke. His subsequent career has involved work (as a soloist) with the Philharmonia and solo performances in almost 40 countries. He has collaborated with Philip Glass and many other individuals and organisation and has recorded at least 15 CDs. He is Professor of Saxophone at London’s Trinity Laban Conservatoire as well as Saxophone Tutor at RWCMD.
Mischievously, this concert began and ended with an overture. The Obertura which opened the programme was the work of Spanish composer David Beltran (b.1981), who comes from Murcia in South-East Spain (one of my favourite Spanish cities, as it happens). His own primary instrument is the saxophone. Obertura opened with a buzzing tutti for the ensemble, followed by a long passage in which the lead alternated between different sections of the ensemble (soprano, alto tenor, baritone/bass); a slow and quite interlude was succeeded by some attractive dance rhythms. Variations of tempo and rhythm continued before a striking conclusion, with strong rhythmic emphases. The whole (written in 2001) made for an engaging opening piece, offering a good representation of what a largeish saxophone ensemble (or Saxophone Choir, to use the terminology adopted by RWCMD) can offer.
Of the remaining six pieces in the programme, two were written by members of this well-drilled student ensemble – Okay, then by Nina Martin and Firefly by Giacomo Aggas. Martin’s Okay, then, proved to be a witty and lively piece, with a surprise ending; it displayed considerable sophistication. Martin is, I suspect, a young composer of whom we shall hear much more in the years to come; indeed, young as she is, she already has an impressive past – her first composition (when aged 15) was for string quartet and was played three times at the Liverpool Philharmonic Hall by string players from the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra!
Aggas’s Firefly is an inventive piece which in which the composer seems to have been more interested in rhythm than either melody or instrumental textures, the Saxophone Choir was joined onstage by three student percussionists: Markus Hoppe, Josh Gurner and Matt Baynham. At one point the rhythm was set by the mass clicking of saxophone keys and at another by the synchronised stamping of feet. The results had considerable excitement and was often hard-driven in rhythm. There was also some attractive interplay between sections of the saxophone choir.
In between the two pieces composed by students we heard Breathe by Edmund Joliffe. Joliffe is a British composer who has written extensively for television – e.g. The Traitors, The Real Marigold Hotel and Sort Your Life Out, to give a few examples. However, he has also composed concert works both for orchestra and chamber ensembles. Breathe was composed in 2004 and for its performance the Saxophone Choir was joined by student pianist Bing Song. I have to confess that I found Breathe rather bland though well-made and with some nice details but lacking the excitement of the pieces which had preceded it (or, indeed, of those which followed it).
All of the works so far, being for the whole ‘choir’ had been conducted, energetically and adroitly, by Gerard McChrystal. A short break to rearrange seats and music stands gave him the opportunity to put down his baton and take up a soprano saxophone, so as to lead the performance of Mark David Bowen’s saxophone quartet Bounce, Wave, Buzz, Rave in which he was joined by three members of the student Saxophone Choir. Bowen might reasonably be described as one of RWCMD’s own. Born in 1986, he studied at the College with the late (and much missed) Peter Reynolds, before continuing his studies at the Royal College of Music. He was made an Associate of RWCMD in 2008 and currently teaches composition there.
This performance of Bounce, Wave, Buzz, Rave was a world premiere. The four nouns of its title provide a pretty good guide to its nature; it is full of energy and musical ‘rhymes’ – the nouns of its title rhyme abab, of course. It offers a number of long interweaving lines and sustains a jazz-influenced rhythm throughout. It was well played, with McChrystal’s soprano sax providing a very secure lead; the ensemble work was always precise, but never at the expense of rhythmic momentum. This was a sophisticated pleasure underpinned by variety of rhythm. Being, as it were, a ‘local’, the composer came up on to the stage briefly to take his well-deserved applause.
Dusk by Stephen Bryant dates from 2008. Bryant is a pianist and composer who studied with John Corigliano. His composition Dusk is a serene study full of very pleasant instrumental textures. Its opening was beautifully phrased in this performance before the build up to a modest climax. It has an elegiac quality to it – for the end of the day and, by analogy, for other occasions of closure. Itself a rather lovely piece, it also served as an anticipatory contrast with the energy and initial ferocity of the overture to Bernstein’s Candide – a neat bit of programming.
The Overture to Bernstein’s Candide is to put it mildly, effervescent and witty, and also well supplied with memorable tunes from the body of the opera, such as that for ‘Oh, Happy We’ or the melody to which ‘Glitter and Be Gay’ is sung. For this closing item in the programme, the Saxophone Choir was once again joined by percussionists Markus Hoppe, Josh Gurner and Matt Baynham, and, of course, Gerard McChrystal resumed his baton. The overture was played in an arrangement by Eddie Chung, who I guess must be the Eddie Chung I found on the internet as originally from Hong Kong and now studying oboe and cor anglais at RWCMD. The arrangement was a delight, from its galvanic opening, with the timpani forcefully deployed, onwards. There was lots of scurrying work for all the saxophones (well handled), with several short solos for individual musicians, which again all seemed to work well. The wit of Bernstein’s writing was well captured. The many changes of rhythm, tempo and dynamics at no point confused the ensemble (as I have heard before now in performances of this overture). In short, it was a triumphant conclusion to a thoroughly enjoyable concert and said much of the high competence of RWCMD’s student saxophonists.
Glyn Pursglove