STYLUS FANTASTICUS
When the idiosyncratic saxophone quartet BL!NDMAN confronted Bach’s chorale partitas in 1999, this immediately proved to be a match made in heaven.
The solemn sound of the saxophones brought out the best in this polyphonic music, and this is also true of the music of Buxtehude and Gesualdo, which the quartet is now tackling. Eric Sleichim arranged compositions in the Stylus Fantasticus or “fantastical style” of Buxtehude, whose innovations paved the way for the High Baroque.
A century earlier, Gesualdo created a recognisable style with chromatic madrigals. Complex music with a simultaneously expressive sound, perfectly suited to BL!NDMAN. With respect for the original and a real appetite for innovation.
Eric Sleichim: artistic direction, arrangements, tubax and electronics
BL!NDMAN [sax]
Pieter Pellens: soprano saxophone
Hendrik Pellens: alto saxophone
Piet Rebel: tenor saxophone
Sebastiaan Cooman: baritone saxophone
Recording of Gesualdo by Collegium Vocale
Philippe Herreweghe: Conductor
Barbora Kabátková, Hana Blažíková: Soprano Vocals
Marnix De Cat: Alto Vocals
Thomas Hobbs: Tenor Vocals
Peter Kooij: Bass Vocals
Programme
Carlo di Gesualdo / REMIX Eric Sleichim: Se la mia morte brami (Book 6 of Madrigals)
Dietrich Buxtehude / Arr. Eric Sleichim:
Choral : Wachet Auf, ruft uns die Stimme
Magnificat primi toni, BuxWV 203
Choral : Wo soll ich fliehen hin
Praeludium en mode phrygien, BuxWV 152
Arvo Pärt: Pari Intervallo
Dietrich Buxtehude / Arr. E.Sleichim :
Choral : Verleih uns Frieden
Praeludium in G Minor, BuxWV 148
Carlo di Gesualdo / REMIX Eric Sleichim: Belta poi che t’assenti (Book 6 of Madrigals)
Johann Sebastian Bach / Arr. Eric Sleichim:
Pedal Exercitium, BWV 598
Passacaglia in C Minor, BWV 582
