Vocalise is the product of a twelve-year collaboration between saxophonist Marc Botha and organist Riaan Steyn. The combination of saxophone and organ remains a relatively unusual one, perhaps because both instruments conjure such strong associations: the organ with the sympathetic evolution of music, church and society, and the saxophone with the proliferation of jazz.

Yet, their musical qualities are remarkably complimentary, the considerable range of tone colours of the organ being well matched by the sheer versatility of the saxophone. It is the search for the uncomplicated and honest musical voice which these instruments share that has guided the choice of repertoire for this recording, and inspired its name, Vocalise – music spoken in a language still in the process of being invented, and woven from melodious words more true than those to which one ordinarily gives voice.

The recording opens with the light-hearted Humoreske by Dvořák – revealing the composer’s wit and sentimentality – before proceeding to the more substantial three movements of Antonio Vivalidi’s well-known Violin Concerto, Op. 3/6. Indeed the music of the Baroque, renowned for its adaptability, provides fertile ground for the organ and saxophone to explore. Two Baroque Sicilianos also feature on the track list: a stately and elegant third movement from the Oboe Sonata in c by G.P. Telemann; and the hauntingly sweet, yet subtly melancholic, second movement from J.S. Bach’s Flute Sonata no 2. Händel’s famous Largo from his opera Xerxes and the inimitable Adagio in g by Albinoni rounds off the Baroque selection.

The recording contains two compelling organ solos, Gordon Young’s ebullient Prelude in Classical Style and the moving Aria by the British organist, Noel Rawsthorne. The latter expresses a Romantic sensibility which is equally suited to the expressive capacities of the two instruments together, exemplified in Modest Mussorgsky’s mysterious and evocative The Old Castle and in the dramatic intensity of Rachmaninov’s Vocalise, from which the recording takes its name.

Then on to more contemporary works. The highly passionate, even melodramatic, Night Club 1960 by Astor Piazzola is one of two tangos, the other being Albeniz’s more playful Tango, while Andrew Lloyd-Webber’s Pie Jesu provides a lyrical counterpoint to the irrepressible energy of Jean Matitia’s Crazy Rag with which the recording ends.

Vocalise reflects the desire of both musicians to share with the listener the simplicity and sincerity with which they have sought, and continue, to make music.
 
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Published 16 January 2012