Conceived under the sign of the sun, this is a series of works for saxophone and orchestra by French composers with a special affinity for the Mediterranean, its atmosphere and culture(s).

From Florent Schmitt’s Légende, with its Orientalistic inspiration, over the Provencal scenes of Paule Maurice to Ravel’s pavane for a dead Spanish princess (arranged by Tami Nodaira), the programme covers the entire length of the Mediterranean basin. Indeed, with the samba rhythms of Milhaud’s Scaramouche it even crosses the Atlantic, in accordance with that composer’s vision of an imaginary, ideal Provence, ‘stretching from Constantinople to Rio de Janeiro’.

Claude Delangle’s eight BIS titles include solo works by Japanese and Russian avant-garde composers as well as pioneering research into the earliest music written for the saxophone and an anthology of contemporary responses to the tango. For this programme of sunny French concertos, Delangle has joined forces with Singapore Symphony Orchestra and Lan Shui.

Reviews

Ibert’s charming Concertino comes first and encapsulates the spirit of the disc. ... Claude Delangle is a most distinguished exponent of this delightful repertoire and is eminently well supported by the Singaporeans under Lan Shui, and the BIS team.

Penguin Guide 2010