Mountain Roads

David Maslanka (Composer), Russell Peck (Composer), David Frederick Stock (Composer) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Composer: David Maslanka, Russell Peck, David Frederick Stock
• Audio CD (February 27, 2001)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Albany Records
• ASIN: B000059T2B
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #618,688 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

No Description Available.
Genre: Classical Music
Media Format: Compact Disk
Rating:
Release Date: 6-FEB-2001

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A beautiful new piece by Maslanka, May 15, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Mountain Roads (Audio CD)

This is a beautiful cd starting out with a new quartet by David Maslanka and is the six-movement Mountain Roads the cd is named after. The movements are based on Maslanka's study of Bach chorales, and he includes two chorale melodies around which the piece revolve. This piece was commissioned by the Transcontinental Saxophone Quartet, who also premiered it.

The second piece, Sax Appeal, was commissioned by the Amherst Saxophone quartet. It is a lively four movement piece inspired by the jazz idiom.

Russell Peck's Drastic Measures is based upon a three-note figure at the beginning of the piece. It later goes on to include elements such as slap-tonguing.

Overall, the performance of the Transcontinental Saxophone Quartet is very excellent--they blend well together and this is a wonderful cd and a great addition to any collection.

4.0 out of 5 stars Why isn't the classical saxophone quartet more exposed?, March 15, 2007

By 

Sor_Fingers (Boulder, CO USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mountain Roads (Audio CD)

It blows me away how classical saxophone quartet music is listened to as little as it is. On this album, the Transcontinental Saxophone Quartet really puts forth a recording of some great pieces in the saxophone repertoire. Their ensemble musicianship is quite good and very well rehearsed. This album is simply a great recording for anyone looking to get some saxophone quartet into thier music library.

The first piece is Mountain Roads by big name wind composer David Maslanka. The piece is a series of movements of reworkings of Bach chorales. The piece is absolutely wonderful. The melodies float and soar and are full of American nostalgia. Maslanka's reworkings are absolutely gorgeous and the quartet just exhibits fantastic technical skill and musicianship in the ensemble. The lyrical melodies and rich harmonies are just absolutely magical. The compositional skill of Maslanka and the quartet's fabulous execution are both very evident from the beauty of the recording of this wonderful work that accounts for about half of the album.

The next piece on the album is David Frederick Stock's "Sax Appeal." While this piece is more grounded in pop music and American influence, the quartet still does a fabulous job to make this piece work. The second movement, "Blues" is a little cheesy but the third movement "Sarabande" has both some very beautiful and exciting moments in it. The last movement is absolutely jarring. The piece ends with a fury of notes and creative harmonies. While this piece is not as strong as the title cut, it still makes a fine addition on this great recording.

Finally, the disc closes with Russell Peck's "Drastic Measures." The piece opens with a slow, haunting melody that leads into a beautiful floating exposed wash of sound. The harmonic colors in this piece are absolutely gorgeous. The piece builds marvelously. However, feel like the first movement builds too quickly and would really like to hear more of the material that we got right at the beginning. It also trails of at the end a little bit too long but the haunting chord that we hear at the end is absolutely wonderful. The second and final movement of the piece is quite spritely and fun. We hear some slap tounging and great fast motion. However, there is some blues influence which seems all too cliche in a saxophone quartet. The excitement in the Allegro movement is just infectious though. Once again, the blend and the musicality in the ensemble is just fantastic.

I really love the sound of the orchestration in a saxophone quartet. I wish it more exposed in the classical music world. Unfortunately, it seems that there is too much cliche jazz influence in the repertoire. The title piece on this recording is the corner stone of the album. The other two pieces are fine, but nothing to write home about. The recording is worth the Maslanka piece, and if it wasn't on here, I wouldn't have bought it.