CD656

There is nothing so intimate as a chamber recital with just a solo instrument and accompaniment. It takes a special talent to project the warmth and intimacy of the music as well as keeping the audience spell-bound. It is more than the selections performed, it is more than instruments involved, it is, in fact the chemistry between all of the above and the audience. Kenneth Tse, alto saxophone, and Kari Millen, piano, offer the listener just such an experience with the CD simply titled Kenneth Tse, Saxophone. In the words of Eugene Rousseau, "Kenneth Tse is a uniquely talented saxophonist who is endowed with a facile technique and a tone of great beauty, plus the ability to understand and interpret a wide range of musical styles."

Kerneth Tse is a player of the first order. All of the praise that has preceded him was well deserved and perhaps a bit understated, His sound is warm and rich, but is easily altered to suit the moment at hand. He easily brings the altissimo into the normal range of the saxophone for the listener and makes it sound very easy. His articulations are incredibly fast and extremely clean. As an artist he adapts easily to different styles creating scintillating performances regardless of the year, the period or the genre of the music. He easily slides into a light jazz side with Victor Morosco's unaccompanied Blue Caprice. Added to this versatility is wonderful ability to take long melodic lines and spin them into arabesques of music episodes. He uses his vibrato as an added color of the saxophone and varies its frequency and depth to enhance the musical thoughts. Equally important is the artistic sense of ensemble he displays with his associate, pianist Kari Miller. Together they give the music the necessary life it needs to flourish for the listener.......................

Together, this duo sets the pace for the others to follow. The give and take between the two is incredible. The music is just there in all its beauty without strain or effort Some of the selections fool the imagination's ear into symphonic proportions. The first selection is Sonata far Alto Saxophone and Piano (1989/90). This is a fine example of the twentieth century classical saxophone and how it should be played. It contains all of the effects of the modern saxophone flawlessly and they flow by so musically that they unnoticed as an effect but simply felt as an extension of the expressive side of the instrument. This followed by Walter Kaufman's Meditation. This brings out the lyrical side of the saxophone and the artist. It is a beautiful piece of music and Kenneth Tse's performance will totally captivate you. All of the selections are superb from Robert Muczynski's exciting Sonata Warren Benson's haunting Aeolian Song the performances are thrilling. Of special note is Blue Caprice by Victor Morosco It
is an unaccorripanied piece based on the theme and variations that based on the theme through the different prominent styles of jazz. If you think about it a short history of jazz for unaccompanied alto saxophone in roughly seven minutes is incredible. Much applause to both the composer and Kenneth Tse. The final piece is an excellent West Side Story medley by Eugene Rousseau. From Broadway to jazz to contemporary classical saxophone music the team of Kenneth Tse and Kari Miller on cutting edge of chamber music. The intimacy of saxophone and piano is dazzling in their capable bands. But this CD goes beyond the hands, it has instilled the heart and breath of Kenneth Tse and Kari Miller into the music and brings it alive for all of us.

Kenneth Tse plays the saxophone with seductive tonal beauty. In this recital of international contemporary music based on Tse's 1996 Carnegie Hall debut, Walter Kaufman's exotic Meditation, Victor Morosco's virtuosic Blue Caprice, Warren Benson's lyrical Aeolian Song, Robert Muczynski's neo-classical sonata, Bernhard Heiden's Hindemithian Solo for Alto Saxophone and Piano, and excerpts from Bernstein's West Side story all have an irresistible sexiness and warmth. Even when he plays with the earthy abandon the instrument is renowned for, as in the abrasive Sonata for Alto Saxophone by Czech composer Jindrich Feld, Tse manages a supremely elegant tone. Pianist Karl Miller is a lively, sensitive accompanist. The repertory is fresh, the recording vibrant. A seductive collection.

Until the last two selections of this recital (the Morosco and Bernstein pieces), one forgets that the saxophone is most often associated with jazz and popular music. The other works on the disc explore a number of different modernist styles, all tonal from the attractive blend of Eastern and Western musical features in Walter Kaufmann's Meditation to the sturdy Hindeminth-like contrapuntal texture of Bernard Hedien's elegantly crafted Solo. Robert Muczynski's two-movement Sonata is a high point of the disc-an absorbing work, beautifully written for the instrument. Jindrich Feld's Sonata is the longest work on the program. It is a nervous, dissonant piece, with some good ideas intelligently developed, but perhaps a few too many register shifts. Tse, however, plays the sonata with impressive skill. In fact, it is probably the quality of the performance even more than the music that strikes the listener in most of these pieces. Tse produces a highly varied sound on his instrument, from a sweet, oboelike legato to a sharp, brassy forte. The top notes of the instrument are never shrill, and the reedy, pop-music sound so often associated with the instrument is only occasionally suggested-in Morosco's Blue Caprice, where it is quite appropriate. Kari Miller is a strong and equally talented partner in this recital. The recorded sound is excellent, achieving a very attractive balance between sax and piano.