---

Programme Note

This Concerto was commission by Saxofourte and was first performed by them with the Loh-Orchester Sondershausen, conducted by Peter Stangel, in the Haus der Kunst, Sondershausen, Germany, on 10 March 2001.
My aim with this Concerto was to treat the (amplified) saxophone quartet as a single unit as powerful as, and independent of, the orchestra, which itself is a self-contained life of its own (seemingly) allowing no real possibilities of dialogue with the quartet. (This is a different approach than to the solo instrumens in my other concertos - for trombone, cembalo, piano, etc).
The orchestral material is based totally on a series of four minor 7th chords (G, E, F sharp, B) which I 'discovered' recently in my vocal duet 'The Kiss' of 1985, and which also features in parts of my opera 'Facing Goya' (2001). The Concerto thus (may) carry with it some of the references to 15th century art history contained in the text to 'The Kiss'.