In its tried and trusted research activity, the Quartetto Accademia has unearthed, an extensive submerged heritage of music for the saxophone.The four knights of the sax have now plunged their hands into another chest full of precious jewels: the saxophone compositions of the Belgian Jean-Baptiste Singelée (Brussels, 5th November 1812 - Ostende, 29th November 1875).
Ignored in music histories, Jean-Baptiste Singelée was in his time an excellent violinist and an active composer. He left 25 pieces for sax and piano, almost all of them fantasias, and these open a wide window onto the background of the twentieth-century saxophone repertoire. We need only listen to the Quartet’s excellent CD, with the illuminating presence of Canino on the piano, to appreciate the technical and musical value of Singelée’s production, and in consequence, the historical background that underpinned the story of western saxophone writing, despite its failure to win over the masses in Europe.
