Review: Derby Chamber Music: Huw Wiggin and James Sherlock, 15.2.13

It's

taken a long time for the classical world to fully embrace the

saxophone. Even now the repertoire relies on a disproportionate

number of transcriptions – not necessarily a bad thing, but

symptomatic of a gap that is still closing.

The

one original saxophone piece in the recital by Huw Wiggin and pianist

James Sherlock was the opening item, Pedro Iturralde's Pequeña

czarda. The players' full command of its changing moods was

typical of the evening as a whole. Wiggin switched from alto to

soprano instrument for two movements from Astor Piazzolla's

Histoire du tango, exploring an impressive dynamic range, and

producing a delectable cor anglais-like tone at the bottom of the

instrument's compass.

Baroque

music can work surprisingly well on the saxophone. In a transcription

of the D minor Oboe Concerto by Alessandro Marcello (still sometimes

mis-attributed to his brother, Bendetto) there was magical stillness

in the second movement and some nimble playing in the third. In the G

minor Flute Sonata, BWV 1020, attributed to JS Bach but now generally

thought to be by his son Carl Philipp Emanuel, energy and drive in

the outer movements were balanced by poise and elegance in the middle

one.

I

was a bit apprehensive as to how Franck's Violin Sonata would

survive transcription for alto sax, but it came out of it rather

well. Wiggin and Sherlock expertly balanced the work's latent

passion with the poise of both the opening and the canonic finale.

Huw

Wiggin took a break in each half, leaving James Sherlock

centre-stage. Liszt's transcription of 'Widmung', the opening

number of Schumann's song-cycle Myrthen, was given a soulful

performance. Introducing Poulenc's Mélancholie in the

second half, Sherlock said that in spite of the title it was one of

the happiest pieces he knew. His playing, though, told a different

story, clearly the true one. If Poulenc had hit upon Elgar's phrase

'smiling with a sigh' this is a piece he would surely have

applied it to.

The

evening's success was partly down to Huw Wiggin and James

Sherlock's entertaining platform manner, sparring off each other

verbally as well as musically – a style of partnership given its

head in François Borne's virtuoso Fantasie on themes from

Carmen. I'll even let them off starting half-way through it

without telling anyone.