Check out this great new CD from Clifford Leaman, Joseph Lallo and Peter De Jager.

The CD is called “Traces” and it features music by Catherine Likhuta, John Fitz Rogers, Fang Man, and Braxton Blake, as well as my own composition “Seventh Heaven” for soprano sax, alto sax and piano. I love the joy and amazing musicianship that Clifford, Joseph and Peter capture in this recording!

Available from all your favourite places, including… Spotify

FRIDAY 12 JANUARY, 2024 (4PM)
Seventh Heaven (for soprano saxophone, alto saxophone and piano)
Performers: Clifford Leaman (saxophone), Timothy Roberts (saxophone) & Casey Dierlam Tse (piano).
Venue: International Saxophone Symposium, hosted by the United States Navy Band @ George Mason University Center for the Arts (Harris Theatre),
Fairfax, Va., USA.
Info: International Saxophone Symposium

Seventh Heaven (for soprano saxophone, alto saxophone and piano) was commissioned in 2021 by Clifford Leaman and Joseph Lallo. The title of the score is intended to suggest not only the abundantly joyful mood of the music, but also my fondness for using the interval of a Major 7th.

The first movement (Brillante, crotchet = c. 120) sets the scene with a cavalcade of flourishing gestures, buoyant melodies, spiky rhythms and climactic modulations. Working as one, the three instruments aid and abet each other to create a highly energised, driven music. As if uninvited, a brief fragment of classically-inflected bitonal piano music makes its first contrasting appearance in the musical narrative, followed by a resumption of heightening tensions leading to the conclusion of the first movement.

In the second movement (Fugitivo, crotchet = c. 108), the scene is one of shadows and light, zephyrs and wind chimes, with a central section marked Dolcissimo, con rubato.

Beginning with a 9/8 time signature, the third movement (Con ritmo, dotted crotchet = c. 80) uses a motoric piano rhythm to underpin the lengthy strides of a new theme echoed between the two saxophones. After a series of modulations heighten the music’s tension, there ensues an abridged recapitulation of material from the first movement, followed by a decisive coda.

I thank Clifford and Joseph for commissioning Seventh Heaven and extend my best wishes for their world premiere performance.

Dr Matthew Orlovich,
Composer.

World Premiere Performance: Seventh Heaven (for soprano sax, alto sax & piano), performed by Joseph Lallo, soprano sax; Clifford Leaman, alto sax; and Nicholas Susi, piano @ Recital Hall, School of Music, University of South Carolina, SC, USA. (14 September, 2023).

THURSDAY 7 DECEMBER, 2023 (1:30PM)
Newsflash: Program cancelled due to Covid-19

Performers: Clifford Leaman (saxophone), Timothy Roberts (saxophone) & Casey Dierlam Tse (piano).
Venue: XIX World Saxophone Congress, Auditorio Conservatorio Superior de Música de Canarias, C. San Francisco, S/N, 35002 Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.

Program: “New Music for Two Saxophones and Piano”.
Info: XIX World Saxophone Congress