After the Tryst: New Music for Saxophone and Piano

The saxophone may be a late addition to classical music’s instrumental lineup, but its repertoire is as arresting and colourful as anything written for its more ancient cousins. The liquid tone of Sue McKenzie is the perfect vehicle for this engaging collection of mostly late 20th-century works for soprano sax and piano. The title work, James MacMillan’s “After the Tryst”, is a swooping, jazz-inflected, sensual miniature, while Michael Nyman’s “Miserere Paraphrase” is piercing and elegiac. Cecilia McDowall’s “Mein blaues Klavier”, one of two 21st-century works, explores the notion of the losses of war with music of ethereal beauty.