Reviews

“There’s nothing like sheer virtuosity in instantly relatable music to liven up the proceedings. In the weekend’s Benedict Music Tent highlights, saxophonist Steven Banks brought a high-voltage jolt to Friday’s Chamber Symphony with a new, crowd-pleasing concerto written for him.

Banks considers himself a 100-percent classical saxophonist. Demonstrating complete command of his instruments, he found polished tone and executed complex roulades, runs and other classically based figures. Extensive cadenzas that link the first movement with the second and the second with the third soared into the highest elevations of the range and required the highest discipline to bring off smoothly, and he did it like the champ he is.

His extraordinary command of the instrument made this unforgettable.”

“A stunning new concerto for a sensational saxophone soloist dialed up the wow factor at the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra on Saturday night. Saxophonist Steven Banks and composer Billy Childs demonstrated that the saxophone deserves a spotlight on the symphonic stage as much as in a jazz ensemble.

Childs’ new concerto, a co-commission by the CSO, was the centerpiece of a crowd-pleasing program that opened with Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Russian Easter Overture” and ended with Mussorgsky’s “Pictures at an Exhibition.” On the podium was the gifted Spanish conductor Ramón Tebar, whose artistry impressed at every turn.

The result was an electric evening from beginning to end.

Endowed with an easy virtuosity and a joyful presence, Banks is a persuasive champion of his instrument.”

“Banks displayed assurance, rich tone and communicative playing, down to a final fadeout and switching off of his stand light to signal the end.”

“Deeply felt lyricism, a warmly glimmering tone, expert shaping of a dramatic arc, and
a remarkable level of control. ”

“Steven Banks all but stole the show...He proved to be a remarkably nimble saxophonist who not only played his instrument with pristine clarity and enviable precision but knew how to add emotional heat to his interpretation.

The Concerto for Alto Saxophone, written in 1944, enabled Banks to exude plenty of energy in the first movement, labeled “Energetic,” and to show off in a demanding cadenza. In the second movement, marked “Meditative,” his music-making turned mellow and dreamy. And when the “Rhythmic” final movement came along, Banks let the fingers flutter and flash in bravura fashion. He dazzled, and those who came to listen cheered.”

“After a brief orchestral introduction, the soloist took off like a rocket with a couple of ascending riffs that had more notes than you could count in the time they were played. His fingers flying on the keys and his embouchure firm on the mouthpiece, Banks played a breath-taking performance with only a few orchestral interludes to give him (and us) a chance to catch a breath. This young artist’s future is wide open to him.”

“Hahn responded with a lovely encore, Through My Mother’s Eyes, which was written for her by Steven Banks. She dedicated the performance to her children, and it was touching to see Nézet-Séguin listening from a seat in the orchestra.”

“Steven Banks’ Through My Mother’s Eyes, commissioned by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association and written for Hahn as part of her residency. The short movement clearly takes inspiration from Bach’s solo violin works, with arpeggiated figuration dancing above a harmonic ground bass, before closing with a private lullaby the composer’s mother sang to him as a child. Hahn gave the same stellar advocacy to this miniature as she did to the preceding works.”

“The Banks premiere, entitled Fantasy on Recurring Daydreams, came next. Like a slow awakening from a dream, the music unfolds through various moods: from dramatic to quietude...from somber and pensive to intense and restless. Persistent deep chords introduce a cinematic lushness, the music is quite grand.

Gentle trills are played over dark-hued motifs in the lower range, and then jangling sounds emerge, underlaid by dense low rhythms; the music has a deep ending. Zhu Wang played with total commitment, savouring the score’s wealth of colours and its rhythmic richness. ”

“The highlight of the second part of the concert was Banks’ own composition, “Come as You Are.” It was dedicated to his family who connected him through their church to the gospel music on which this piece is based. It was quite moving, hearing these familiar songs played so lovingly on the saxophone.”

“The heart of the recital is Steven Banks’s Come As You Are, an affirmation of the tenor sax as a concerto instrument, drawing on the heroic nature of the whole single-reed family painted with a romantic palette of emotion and colour. The second movement is a jazzy, impressionist fantasy, the third an outpouring of song with a lovely grand introduction for the pianist. The raucous finale, ‘Lift My Hands’, pulls out all the stops with a conclusion mounting to a Beethovenian climax.”

“The piece, which was given a passionate performance by both players, offers a unique and ambitious blend of feelings and sounds: a deep intimacy, a Romantic-style flourish, the dramatic flair of gospel music, and a sense of vulnerability that comes through in the history of the spirituals.”

“Banks wrote the piece for tenor sax, which was the instrument he played in his early years and that his church family would associate with him. It is glorious, full of hope and joy, and made all the more powerful by the playing of the man who composed it.”

“Mr. Banks brings the refreshing evening to a conclusion with his composition Come As You Are, which is everything it promises to be encompassing the unique and emotional times which we are currently living through. I felt like he was channeling an amalgam of great composers through his own vent.”

“Welser-Möst drew out minute details from the instrumental fabric, the tinkling sounds of Miami native Joela Jones on celesta and the vibrant sonority of Steven Banks’ tenor saxophone emerging with special clarity.”

“The Kenari Quartet managed to bring the house down. They played an encore too: Piazzolla’s Adiós Nonino. What struck me most was the great degree of maturity they already display as an ensemble, which comes through as a very natural expressive playing, with a good degree of virtuosic technique too, which one relates more commonly to the playing of a soloist. Here however, four instrumentalists manage to produce that effect, which is quite remarkable.”

“Saxophonists Bob Eason, Kyle Baldwin, Corey Dundee and Steven Banks paid tribute to contemporary composer/innovator Maslanka (who died last August) by offering selections (chosen by BW professor Dani Kuntz) to show how work by Bach and Maslanka merged. Moving smoothly from baroque to jazz to contemporary styles, the quartet added well-thought out improvisations in (as the program notes) ways “Bach probably would never [have] imagined.” Swiftly trading solo spots for duets and then moving back into quartet formation, the ensemble allowed each performer a well-deserved spotlight in a joyful exploration of complex responses to Bach.

While I’m not sure that there’s anything Bach could not have imagined if he’d had an incentive to, the concert was more than a tribute to the past — it was sheer musical delight to hear so many ways a single bass line (and the versatility of the sax) could be celebrated, especially in a piece originally designed for a harpsichord.”

“The sax-only Kenari Quartet emerged the unexpected stars of the “La Musique de France” concert July 1 at Portland State University’s Lincoln Hall (and the night before at Reed College’s Kaul Auditorium). Its members delighted and surprised the audience and further heated up the overheated hall. It was hot in there!

Showing off their familiarity and finesse with French composers (their debut CD on the Naxos label is French Saxophone Quartets), Kenari began with Pierre Max Dubois’ free-spirited Quatuor pour Saxophone, written in 1956. Lively and speedily paced, with echoes of jazz, its four movements lasted more than the 10 minutes noted on the program – I’d say 15. We would have liked 20!

An 8-minute romp of sax acrobatics, Andante et Scherzo, by southern French 20th-century composer Eugene Bozza, began with spicy harmonies and overlapping melodies and ended with some hurdy-gurdy fun. Kenari Quartet illustrated how agile those wind instruments in all sizes can be, while exposing curious music lovers to rarely performed classical sax music.”

“The piece (Come As You Are), which was given a passionate performance by both players, offers a unique
and ambitious blend of feelings and sounds: a deep intimacy, a Romantic-style flourish,
the dramatic flair of gospel music, and a sense of vulnerability that comes through in the
history of the spirituals.”