The Washington Post

Saturday, April 5, 1997

by JOAN REINTHALER

The saxophone is not a reticent instrument. Its presence colors the sonority of any ensemble it joins, and its voice evokes not only the sounds but even the heat and the smells of urban air or French cafes or jazz clubs.

The members of the New Century Saxophone Quartet, which performed Thursday at Bethesda’s Georgetown Preparatory School under the auspices of Strathmore Hall’s “Music in the Mansion” series, have a broader view of the instrument’s possibilities. Their program of mostly recent pieces by American composers (an excellent transcription of three of the Contra­puncti from Bach’s “The Art of the Fugue” was the only exception) offered a convincing argument for the saxophone as a stand-alone player with an attractive repertoire all its own, tinged only occasionally with hints of jazz or the rest.

The most interesting piece on the program (and a premiere) was the Quartet No. 2 by Lenny Pickett of “Saturday Night Live” fame. Its three movements focus on musical ideas rather than saxophone acrobatics, the opening movement a lovely study in blues, the second movement a slow and pulsing opportunity for reflection and the final movement a virtuoso example of a rhythmic structure in which the four instruments begin together, slide further and further apart as each one moves at its own pace and finally come together and into focus. In this case, the musicians also wandered offstage one by one as the piece drew to a close, a little like the end of the Haydn “Farewell” Symphony. The performance was beautifully coordinated.

Other pieces by Frackenpohl, Schaffer and Peck called for agility, rhythmic incisiveness and careful attention to ensemble. What distinguished this performance was that all of this was so well done with so little apparent effort or premeditation.