Alastair Penman & Jonathan Pease

Performers

Notes on the performers

Hailed as a “pioneering instrumentalist and writer” and praised for his “surpassingly beautiful music” and “undoubtedly brilliant mind”, saxophonist Alastair Penman is a dynamic and versatile performer and composer. Alastair is a City Music Foundation Artist, Park Lane Group Artist, BBC Introducing Artist, Live Music Now Artist, a Yeoman of the Worshipful Company of Musicians, and has won awards from the Countess of Munster Musical Trust, RNCM and St. Catharine’s College, Cambridge. Alastair is a Henri Selmer Paris and Vandoren UK performing Artist.

As a soloist, Alastair has been a guest recitalist at European and World Saxophone Congresses and his debut album, Electric Dawn has received airplay on BBC Radio 3. Alastair’s recent EP, Do You Hear Me?, which highlights the climate emergency, has been described by critics as “groundbreaking”, “a superb mix of sounds” and “damn good music”. In an ensemble setting Alastair leads the award-winning Borealis Saxophone Quartet and plays baritone saxophone with the Kaleidoscope Saxophone Quartet. Alastair has performed with orchestras including the Philharmonia, London Contemporary Orchestra and Royal Ballet Sinfonia.

As an educator Alastair is Professor of Saxophone at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and is a regular tutor at Benslow Music. He has taught classes for UCLA (USA), Royal Northern College of Music, Trinity Laban Conservatoire and Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama and has taken sectional rehearsals for the National Youth Wind Orchestra.

Jonathan is an accomplished, versatile pianist, who studied with Graham Fitch. He offers particularly developed sight-reading and ensemble skills.

He is part of a successful duo partnership with oboist Nicola Hands, with whom he has has released two CDs: Light and Shade and Phoenix. The latter included the premiere recording of Paul Patterson’s Phoenix Sonata.

He also accompanies saxophonist Alistair Penman, with whom he regularly appears as guest entertainer on world cruises. The two have released the CD Soar, which has been played on BBC Radio.

Jonathan has worked with groups including Blackheath Halls, Chelsea Opera Group, Garsington Youth Opera, Glyndebourne Opera, Highbury Opera Theatre, Opera Holland Park, Orpheus Sinfonia, Spitalfields Music and Royal Opera House. He has conducted from the piano La Traviata for Devon Opera and The Pirates of Penzance, HMS Pinafore, Patience, Suor Angelica and Amahl and the Night Visitors for Opera Anywhere.

Programme

Programme notes

Jules Demersseman

Fantaisie sur un thème originale

French composer Jules Demersseman was one of the first French composers to write music for the newly-developed saxophone. One of these was ‘Fantaisie sur un thème original’ for Alto Saxophone and Piano. It was written for Henri Wuille, a friend of Adolphe Sax. The work has acquired an appreciated place in in the repertoire for Alto Saxophone.

Source: Wikipedia

Erik Satie arr. Alastair Penman

Gymnopédie No. 1

The Gymnopédies are three piano compositions written by French composer and pianist Erik Satie. He completed the whole set by 2 April 1898.

Source: Wikipedia

Paul Mitchell-Davidson

Rage Against the Dying of the Light

Paul Mitchell-Davidson is a composer of contemporary classical music whose compositions cover most genre’s of music including symphonic, choral, chamber music and Jazz. Rage Against the Dying of the Light was premiered by Alastair Penman and Jonathan Pease in March 2024.

Source: Alastair Penman

Paule Maurice

Tableaux de Provence

1. Farandoulo di chatouno (Farandole of the young girls)
2. Cansoun per ma mio (Song for my love)
3. La boumiano (The Bohemian woman, or The Gypsy)
4. Dis alyscamps l’amo souspire (A Sigh on the soul for the Alyscamps)
5. Lou cabridan (The Southern Hornet)

Tableaux de Provence (“Pictures of Provence”) is a programmatic suite composed by Paule Maurice between 1948 and 1955 for alto saxophone and orchestra, most often performed with piano accompaniment only. The work was dedicated to French saxophone virtuoso, Marcel Mule. The movements describe the culture and scenery of Provence, southeast France, where the Mules, Paule Maurice, and her husband, composer Pierre Lantier, spent vacation time together.

Source: Wikipedia

Phil Woods

Sonata for Alto Saxophone and Piano

1. movement 1
2. Slowly
3. Moderato
4. Freely

Phil Woods’ Sonata For Alto Sax And Piano is an exciting piece, and is different, not because it incorporates jazz into a concert piece, but because it requires performers to take a creative as well as re-creative attitude in its preparation and performance, as improvisation is involved.

Source: Wikipedia

Claude Debussy arr. Alastair Penman

Beau Soir

“Beau soir” (French for Beautiful Evening, or Evening Fair), L. 84, is a French art song written by Claude Debussy, first published in 1891. It is a setting of a poem by Paul Bourget.

Source: Wikipedia

Alastair Penman

Homeward

Homeward is based over a repeating piano motif and has a sense of constant motion giving a feeling of heading for home. It features a reflective saxophone cadenza in the middle before we are whisked back onto our journey.

Source: Wikipedia

Jules Demersseman arr. Fred Hemke

Carnival of Venice

Jules Demersseman was friends with Adolphe Sax, creator of the saxophone, and wrote some of the first pieces ever written for the saxophone. It was because of his close friendship with Adolphe Sax that Demersseman wrote The Carnival of Venice for one of Sax’s students. Demersseman died at the age of 33 from tuberculosis.

Source: Wikipedia