May 30, 2002 – The Virgin Islands is getting a taste of Puerto Rico's famed Casals Festival of classical music again this year, as the Raschèr Saxophone Quartet appears in concert at the St. Peter Mountain Great House on June 8.
Founded in 1969 by Sigurd M. Raschèr, described in promotional literature as "the foremost saxophone artist of his time," the quartet is known for its "unique homogenous tone quality, vitruosity and dynamic interpretation of old and new music."
The sound of the Raschèr Saxophone Quartet is easily appreciated once heard, but difficult to convey to those who have not listened to a performance, on recording if not in person. It can be delicate and refined, powerful, with an immense spectrum of colors.
The composers who have contributed to its repertoire come from 30 different countries. Programs typically span the music of several centuries as well as continents. Such will be the case for the St. Thomas concert, featuring works by J.S. Bach, Paul Hindemith, J. Rios, Caryl Florio, Henry Purcell and Alexander Glazunov.
The ensemble has performed at most of the great concert venues of the world, including Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center in New York, the Royal Festival Hall in London, the Opera Bastille in Paris, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Musikverein in Vienna and the Philharmonic in St. Petersburg, Russia.
The saxophone quartet comprises Carina Raschèr, the founder's daughter, on soprano instrument; Elliot Riley on alto; Bruce Weinberger on tenor; and Kenneth Coon on baritone. Unlike many chamber ensembles, it has no leader but performs as a musical democracy.
The members carry on the tradition established in the 1930s by the senior Raschèr, a pioneer in the saxophone as solo instrument in classical music. The literature was limited for such an ensemble at first, but fortunately the quartet over the years has been able to expand its repertoire to include many new works as well as transcriptions of the masters.
A mark of the Raschèr Quartet's standing within the classical realm is that more than 250 composers have dedicated music to the group. Fascination with the collaboration of saxophone quartet and orchestra has inspired more than 20 new works which have led to invitations to perform with the BBC Symphony in London, Helsinki Philharmonic, Orchestre de Paris, Philharmonique Strassbourg, Berlin Sinfonie Orchestra and Vienna Symphony, among others.
The ensemble has recorded extensively — including one CD in which the musicians were joined by eight others to perform as the 12-piece Raschèr Saxophone Orchestra, with instruments ranging from soprano to bass saxophone and Weinberger as conductor.
Around 1841, Adolphe Sax set about creating a new musical instrument that he envisioned as having the flexibility of the string family, the power of the brass family and the fundamental tone quality of the woodwinds. So pleased with his first success that he gave it his own name, he then took on the challenge of building an entire family of the instruments. The idea inspired the French composer Georges Kastner to compose a work for saxophone orchestra in 1844, while Sax was still at work developing the instruments. To Sax's surprise, the admirers of his invention would include Berlioz, Donizetti and Liszt.
Critics have been duly impressed with the impact of the saxophone quartet. "When the Raschèr Quartet plays Bach," the German musicologist Ulrich Dibelius wrote, "the music takes on a seraphic aura — as if the organ and the string quartet had come together."
The German daily Die Welt opined that, "If there were an olympic discipline for virtuoso wind playing, the Raschèr Quartet would definitely receive a gold medal."
And the California's San Jose Mercury wrote: "They show saxophone gymnastics sax adherents never dreamed about: lightning-fast phrases, extremes of range and closely cued articulation. Most arresting of all, the four are as tightly unified as a string quartet."
The Times of London called the ensemble "an extraordinarily powerful exploitation of the saxophone's sheer vibrancy at high pitch, or its surprising agility in the knottiest counterpoint and of its vivid powers of declamation."
The Birch Forum, a philanthropic organization founded by Patti Birch in recognition of her late husband, attorney Everett B. Birch, has been presenting classical music and other performance events on St. Thomas since 1996, mainly at the Reichhold Center for the Arts. Two years ago, the Birch Forum, with classical music patron Neil Prior as president, inaugurated the idea of a Virgin Islands extension of the venerable Casals Festival. That year, it brought the Rossini Quartet to perform the same program at the Reichhold Center that it had played the night before at the Centro de Bellas Artes in Santurce.
Last year, again as part of the Casals Festival, the Forum booked the Moscow Soloists with founder and world-renowned violist Yuri Bashmet to do a similar concert at the Reichhold. But complications arose. First, Bashmet had a travel conflict, then so did the 23-member ensemble. So the Forum opted for another Casals group, the Peterson Quartet, and scheduled the performance at the St. Peter Mountain Great House. However travel became an insurmountable problem with this group, too.
So this year's appearance by the Raschèr Quartet as part of the 46th annual Casals Festival will be the first at the Great House on St. Thomas's North Side. The concert will take place in the pavilion.
The June 8 concert begins at 8 p.m. Tickets are $30, discounted to $10 for students with I.D. They're available at the Reichhold Center box office, Modern Music, Parrot Fish Music, Dockside Bookshop, Wireless World in Buccaneer Mall, MSI Interiors, Krystal and Gifts Galore, and Red Hook Ace. They also may be purchased using a charge card by calling the Reichhold box office, 693-1559.
There will be complimentary refreshments and a cash bar following the concert. The St. Peter Great House parking lot has limited space. Patrons are asked not to park along the sides of St. Peter Mountain Road but to utilize complimentary shuttle service that will be available until 7:40 p.m. from Joseph Sibilly School.
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