As many readers will have been aware, The Brickwall Music and Arts Society began its fifty-eighth season on Friday July 4 in Beckley Church with a scintillating concert for four saxophones: two tenors, an alto and a soprano given by the Laefer Quartet.
Adolphe Sax, a Belgian, moved to Paris in the mid-nineteenth century and gave the world the saxophone in 1846. The Laefers not only did Sax’s invention full justice, but all four spoke about the music and their respective instruments.
The music included such fascinatingly-titled and genuinely intriguing pieces as Charlotte Harding’s (b.1989) Sub to Street to Scraping the Sky and Anne Appleby’s (b.1993) Electric Aeroplanes from the present day but also some of the earliest music written for the saxophone, notably Jean-Baptiste Singlee’s (1812 – 1875) First Quartet for Saxophones Opus 53, which sounded much like an orthodox nineteenth century work. This demonstrated not only the brilliant versatility of the players but also the versatility of the instrument itself.
This kind of unusual concert is hard to find and often it is small societies prepared to take some risks and present unusual material which need support to continue doing so. Find out more about the Brickwall Music and Arts Society, whose next concerts are in the Autumn, visiting www.brickwallmusic.org.uk
Joining the Society is simple and surprisingly inexpensive when one considers the quality of the musicianship on display.
Image Credits: Laefer Quartet .