Today Tuesday 29/12... 2pm R3 Jess Gillam plays Barbara Thompson's Saxophone Concerto

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

Jess Gillam plays Barbara Thompson's Saxophone Concerto
Afternoon Concert

Ian Skelly introduces performances from around the world including Jess Gillam playing Barbara Thompson's Saxophone Concerto in Hanover and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra with Britten’s Nocturne. Plus, there’s music by Hans Rott, Georg Muffat, Heinrich Biber and Haydn.

Hans Rott – Overture: Julius Caesar
ORF Radio Symphony Orchestra
Marin Alsop (conductor)

Muffat - Concerto Grosso No 8 in F “Coronatio Augusta”
Freiburg Baroque Orchestra
Lionel Meunier (conductor)

Barbara Thompson - Concerto for saxophone and orchestra
Jess Gillam (saxophone)
NDR Radio Philharmonic Orchestra
Joshua Weilerstein (conductor

[BLUESNIK'S REVOX]

Barbara T...
"I wrote my Saxophone Concerto in 1988. It took me a year to complete it and I had no idea what would happen to it.

When I finished it, to my delight, the Freiburg festival immediately scheduled it on their programme.

It opened up a new world to me. I had been concentrating on my group Paraphernalia – playing jazz – and had not played any classical music for many years. At a festival in Hamburg in 1988, the Hannover Radio Symphony Orchestra recorded my concerto and I was the featured solist on all 3 movements. The late David Fingleton, music critic for The Sunday Express, flew out to review the concert. He gave me a wonderful review..."

[Jazzrook]

Jess Gillam plays Barbara Thompson's Saxophone Concerto
Afternoon Concert

Ian Skelly introduces performances from around the world including Jess Gillam playing Barbara Thompson's Saxophone Concerto in Hanover and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra with Britten’s Nocturne. Plus, there’s music by Hans Rott, Georg Muffat, Heinrich Biber and Haydn.

Hans Rott – Overture: Julius Caesar
ORF Radio Symphony Orchestra
Marin Alsop (conductor)

Muffat - Concerto Grosso No 8 in F “Coronatio Augusta”
Freiburg Baroque Orchestra
Lionel Meunier (conductor)

Barbara Thompson - Concerto for saxophone and orchestra
Jess Gillam (saxophone)
NDR Radio Philharmonic Orchestra
Joshua Weilerstein (conductor

Strange, there's no mention of Barbara Thompson's Saxophone Concerto in the Radio Times for today(Wednesday, 29 Dec).

JR

[Frances_iom]

well I guess it's one bit of music Jess can't talk over

[Quarky]

Strange, there's no mention of Barbara Thompson's Saxophone Concerto in the Radio Times for today(Wednesday, 29 Dec).

JR

She's given top billing in BBC Sounds:: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0012rrq

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

well I guess it's one bit of music Jess can't talk over

Yes. This is what's she's best at.

[Serial_Apologist]

Strange, there's no mention of Barbara Thompson's Saxophone Concerto in the Radio Times for today(Wednesday, 29 Dec).

JR

Not again??!!

That's now twice in a week!

[Jazzrook]

Not again??!!

That's now twice in a week!

Yep. Thanks to Alyn & Bluesnik for highlighting the Pharoah Sanders & Barbara Thompson programmes not listed in the Xmas double issue of RT(waste of money!).

JR

[oddoneout]

well I guess it's one bit of music Jess can't talk over

Only if it's a genuine live relay of a live performance... Otherwise she could, but one would hope she wouldn't, or at least not for the Afternoon Concert slot, which for all its sad decline does still manage (for now) to confine the verbiage to the bits in between the music.

[Quarky]

I enjoyed all the items in this "Afternoon Concert", of which the Saxophone Concerto was only a small part. Thanks BN for bringing it to my attention.

It seems the Concerto is more appreciated in Germany than in the UK. I felt Thompson demonstrated a very light touch in the composition. She is another Jazz (mainly) artist I have seriously underestimated.

[Serial_Apologist]

I enjoyed all the items in this "Afternoon Concert", of which the Saxophone Concerto was only a small part. Thanks BN for bringing it to my attention.

It seems the Concerto is more appreciated in Germany than in the UK. I felt Thompson demonstrated a very light touch in the composition. She is another Jazz (mainly) artist I have seriously underestimated.

This was I believe Barbara's first - ahem! - "serious" venture in composition for the concert repertoire, and I must listen to it again. From memory it seemed to be a work that transferred her stylistic traits from Paraphernalia to full symphonic orchestra without slavishly adhering to formal conventions, and as being rather in the jauntier manner of Malcolm Arnold. She has since composed more substantial works, including for choruses - the "Love Songs in Age" Larkin settings were as good as anything she has done in my view - and has a great "ear" for saxophone and brass textures en masse.

[Ein Heldenleben]

This was I believe Barbara's first - ahem! - "serious" venture in composition for the concert repertoire, and I must listen to it again. From memory it seemed to be a work that transferred her stylistic traits from Paraphernalia to full symphonic orchestra without slavishly adhering to formal conventions, and as being rather in the jauntier manner of Malcolm Arnold. She has since composed more substantial works, including for choruses - the "Love Songs in Age" Larkin settings were as good as anything she has done in my view - and has a great "ear" for saxophone and brass textures en masse.

I enjoyed it. A bit of a category buster ….

[Jazzrook]

I enjoyed it. A bit of a category buster ….

I also enjoyed it - reminiscent of a Frank Zappa composition in places.

JR

[cloughie]

I enjoyed it. A bit of a category buster ….

Not really just file twice!