Mozart Machine

In Mozart Machine, vocal canons and instrumental fugues are threaded together to form a chain which, like a virtual oratorio, tells of Wolfgang’s fortunes and states of mind. From his earliest experiments in 1764, when as a child prodigy he wrote his first fugue (KV15) in London, to his last masterpiece (KV626), which he conceived in Vienna during the final days of his life, we accompany him on his journey of fascination for the then long outmoded polyphonic style.

When Mozart became acquainted with the work of J.S. Bach, which was not until 1782, it led to a serious upheaval in his creative process. He threw himself with a fury into the composition of canons and fugues and in a very short time succeeded in masterfully integrating the archaic style into his own art.
The works played here indicate how exceptionally well this glorious composer was able to unite form and passion.

Initially it seemed that Mozart was absolutely forbidden territory for a saxophone quartet. With BL!NDMAN we sought sound combinations to render the musical structures as transparently as possible and to interpret the spirituality of his work with contemporary instruments.In the fugues the bronze-like sound of the saxophones makes reference to the organ – which Mozart considered the king of instruments – , while together with the high female voices in the canons it is reminiscent of the basset horns he loved so much. Our focused search through the mastery of his polyphonic work led us to a moving encounter with this musical genius whose death came far too early.

This anthology is the direct result of two previous recordings with the saxophone quartet: choral partitas on BL!NDMAN plays Bach and the retrospective of three centuries of the polyphonic repertoire on Multiple Voice.