The 1930s saw composers in Berlin beginning to use the saxophone as a classical instrument – the alto sax paired with the piano being a...

The 1930s saw composers in Berlin beginning to use the saxophone as a classical instrument – the alto sax paired with the piano being a particular favorite. But alas, the heyday of the classical saxophone in Germany was all too short. The Nazis’ cultural policy was the kiss of death for this pariah instrument. Yet a good number of works for the concert saxophone still emerged in the face of this restrictive environment. Some appeared in Berlin, others were created in the exile that many composers had to choose after 1933. Only a handful of works for alto sax and piano were written in Germany after the war, and it wasn’t until the 1980s that this format finally enjoyed a rebirth. The four-part series “Music for Saxophone from Berlin / Music for Saxophone from Germany” offers a selection of works for this distinctive liaison of instruments – from pre-war Berlin, post-war Germany, and again from Berlin’s flourishing musical life at the turn of the millennium. Most of these are world-premiere recordings. “Music for Saxophone from Berlin Vol. 1” kicks off the series – and brings to life the enthusiasm which renowned composers from the 1930s had for this relatively new voice in the choir of classical instruments. The “ultimate discipline” of the sonata comes alive in exciting and rebellious pieces for alto sax and piano by Erwin Schulhoff, Wolfgang Jacobi, Ernst-Lothar von Knorr, and Erwin Dressel. Humorously jazzy, classical and elegant, soberly linear, romantically opulent. This is the diverse palette of styles that composers explored around 1930–32 – just before the National Socialists seized power.