Commissioned by Johannes Thorell and the Nordic Saxophone Quartet with support from Swedish Arts Council and Längmanska Kulturfonden Voyage, Charlotte Bray’s second saxophone quartet was recently premiered in Torun, Poland will receive it’s Swedish premiere at Musikaliska, Stockholm on Friday 27th October.
Composed in Berlin and reflecting on Voyage‘s theme of migration Bray writes:
“Departing by train from any station in Berlin can lead one to think on the many historic journeys that began there. In the current geopolitical climate, with migration at its highest level since the Second World War, this musing is all the more poignant. Watching and listening to the trains depart from Ostbanhof station in the former East Germany, became, in a strange and unexpected way, the starting point for the piece. On these occasions I heard a series of sounds unexpectedly reminiscent of an ascending scale on the saxophone- a distinct, varying collection of ascending ‘notes’, altering at each occurrence in rhythm, tempo, interval, pitch, and number of pitches present. The different musical journeys that evolved from this unique experience, explore a range of accompanying emotions- excitement, fear, anxiety, sorrow and, paradoxically, stillness and calm.”
Tags: Charlotte Bray, Johannes Thorell, Nordic Saxophone Quartet, Voyage