But today, more than a century after his death, symphony orchestras still do not employ saxophones. It is against this background that the New Century Saxophone Quartet performed with the North Carolina Symphony on Friday and Saturday at Memorial Auditorium. Schickele, best known for his satirical P.D.Q. Bach recordings, also composes serious works, and in a preperformance statement from the stage Saturday night, he allowed that he likes pieces that express both. But the concerto is mostly serious, although not gravely so.
Classical saxophone is a different bag altogether.
At times during the concerto, you could imagine the quartet as a mellow extension of the French horn section or the baritone saxophone as an ersatz bassoon or the soprano saxophone as a first violin. The point is that in Schickele's writing and the quartet's articulation, blend and tone were consonant with symphonic tradition. Other passages found the quartet emerging from careening counterpoint to lush, French horn-like voicings. Schickele's concerto is modern in the sense that there are dense harmonies reminiscent of Stravinsky. It's a composition that honors Sax's intention to bring a new voice to the orchestra.