Wednesday 24th June 2026
Nadia Boulanger Cantique
While the older Boulanger sister Nadia is most associated with musical education and conducting, she is not without some beautiful tunes of her own composition. Cantique from 1909 was orinally written as a song for solo voice and piano with a text by by Maurice Maeterlinck. Jess plays an arrangement by Alistair Vennart of this original version where the saxophone evocatively replaces the voice.
Jess may be heard playing this arrangement here.
Arcangelo Corelli La Folia
La Folia is the commonly used name for his D Minor violin sonata, Op. 5 No. 12. Dating from 1700. La Folia is a single movement chaconne in 24 sections – a theme and 23 variations of the traditional Portuguese dance tune, “Folia” (“Madness”), and is immediately recognisable being described as “the most lasting and famous tune in western music”, so much so that it even has its own website! The “original “La Folia” tune was first documented in 1672 but it has much earlier roots. The appeal of this work has lead to many arrangements. Originally written for violin with an accompaniment on harpsichord or bass violin (an early cello), it is frequently performed on almost any instrument you can think of, including, as tonight, saxophone.
Arno Babajanian Piano trio excerpts
I. Largo
II. Andante
III. Allegro vivace
The Armenian Arno Babajanian composed his Piano Trio in F sharp minor in 1952. Babajanian’s works are not frequently performed outside of Ammenia and Russia, but in his native country, he is regarded as a national hero. He composed in many musical forms from popular songs to chamber woks as in the trio. Much of his work was influenced by folk music and the relationship between these influences and the resulting composition is comparable to that of Khachaturian, Rachmaninov, Prokofiev and Bartók.
The Piano Trio contains many easily accessible and passionate melodies, and perhaps Jess’ playing of some of the memorable music from the trio might help to encourage further exposure of this composers under performed work.
George Gershwin Liza
Liza (All the Clouds’ll Roll Away) is a jazz classic composed by George Gershwin in 1929 with lyrics by Ira Gershwin and Gus Kahn. It has an illustrious pedigree being a part of Ziegfeld’s Show Girl performed by the Duke Ellington orchestra. There are many recordings of this work – a quick scan of “Discogs” returns well over 20 performers. It was one of Gershwin’s personal favourites – According to David Ewen’s biography George Gershwin: His Journey to Greatness, Gershwin “continually played it for friends, frequently with improvised variations.”
Dani Howard Dancing Shadows
Composed for alto saxophone and piano, the atmospheric three movement Dancing Shadows was premiered in 2023 at EFG London Jazz festival. Jess and Dani Howard are no strangers to each other – last year saw a commission for Jess of a saxophone concerto by Dani, and locally to Sheffield, the 2024/2025 season included a new work by Dani performed by the Leonore Trio courtesy of Music in the Round.
Sidney Bechet Petite Fleur
Saxophonist Sydney Bechet’s Petit Fleur (Little Flower), is probably his most well known work first recorded in 1952 played on soprano saxophone and clarinet. Although Bechet had a notoriously wild personal life (deported from England in 1922 for assaulting a prostitute, imprisoned in Paris for 11 months for “accidentally” shooting a woman, and deported to New York in 1929, no doubt there was more …) Petit Fleur is a gentle and tender work, originally for solo saxophone, but has many other arrangements.
Grigoraș Dinicu Hora mărțișorului
Romanian violinist Grigoraș Dinicu is probably best known for Hora staccato – a jazz violin classic from 1906. Composed at around the same time Hora mărțișorului (little march – named after an early spring celebration in Romania) for violin and piano, this is an energetic, joyful, rhythmic and notoriously difficult to perform work, a favourite of Heifetz.
Jeremy Wall Elegy for Trane
Elegy for Trane dates from Jeremy Wall’s time with Spyro Gyra being released in 1981 on their album Freetime. This is soulful jazz originally was written for Soprano saxophone, piano, cello and cymbal.
Luis Bacalov (arr. Kristina Arakelyan) Il Postino
Argentine composer of film music Luis Bacalov lived much of his life in Italy, and composed for many Spaghetti Westerns. However, Il Postino (The postman) was a comedy drama with an English director (Michael Radford). The music won the Academy Award for Best Original Score in 1996.
Georg Philipp Telemann Oboe Concerto in G Major – 1st mvt.
There are few composers, especially of the early baroque era, who have travelled so widely, brought so many new influences into their music and were so prolific. Just in concerti for oboe (or oboe d’amore) alone, Telemann wrote at least 12. Two of these are written in G major and date from about 1750 (TWV 51:G2 for oboe or flute, and TWV 51:G3 for oboe d’amore, both with strings and basso continuo). This Andante is the first of the three movements of the bright and dance-like TWV 51:G2 concerto. The surviving original score for this concerto is largely illegible and has parts missing, so is always performed from a reconstruction.