Rhapsody Debussy: Rhapsody; E Coates: Saxo-Rhapsody; Farrington: Paganini Patterns; Liszt: Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2; Phibbs: Night Paths; J Watson: Rhapsody on an Echo Chamber Huw Wiggin (saxophone), Noriko Ogawa (piano) Orchid Classics ORC100216 67:53 mins
Rhapsody, the title work that opens saxophonist Huw Wiggin’s new recital album, shares characteristics with Debussy’s other wind pieces – Syrinx for solo flute, for example – featuring filigree melodies and shifting tonality. It was commissioned by Elise Hall, the Paris-based US saxophonist who, like Wiggin today, was determined to expand the instrument’s then-limited repertoire. Despite the high quality of Debussy’s freewheeling phrases, we might deduce that the composer did not embrace the task: the music was delivered late and minus the agreed orchestral accompaniment. The piano part here was arranged by Vincent David and is expertly played by Noriko Ogawa, who has her own solo Debussy recording series (BIS). Wiggin and Ogawa pass twisting tunes and stabbing staccatos, culminating in a drawn-out – and jarringly jaunty – ending. (Debussy’s excited flourish as he rids his desk of the manuscript, perhaps.)
Thanks to Iain Farrington’s whimsical arrangement of Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 we can imagine how the Hungarian might have written for the instrument. Farrington, who has arranged dozens of works for saxophone, including Baroque pieces for the Ferio Saxophone Quartet (Chandos) also contributes Paganini Patterns, based on the violinist-composer’s 24th Caprice. Wiggin (now on soprano saxophone) and Ogawa swagger through the three movements, infusing the jazz-inspired variations with character. Two new rhapsodies – Joseph Phibbs’s darkly expressive Night Paths and Jennifer Watson’s three-movement work based on echoes, both written for Wiggin and Ogawa – give an edge to Eric Coates’s slushier 1936 piece.
Claire Jackson