Valentine Michaud was the first ever saxophone soloist to perform with the Vienna Philharmonic. She and her regular collaborator, pianist Akvile Silekaite, comprise the award-winning AKMI Duo.

They debut on AVIE with Beyond the Wall, an album of contrasting 20th century sonatas linked by history and geography. Edison Denisov’s Soviet serialism, tinged with forbidden jazz influences, took a cue from the American modernism of William Albright.

Austro-Czech composer Erwin Schulhoff embraced avant garde and jazz idioms, leading the Nazis to brand his music degenerate; he perished in the Wulzburg prison camp in 1942. Paul Hindemith fell in and out of favor with the Nazis, leading him to immigrate to Switzerland and later America. His popular Saxophone Sonata is by turns lyric and dramatic, imbued with irony and humor.

Hindemith: Viola Sonata Op. 11, No. 4 (Arr. for Saxophone and Piano by Valentine Michaud & Akvile Sileikaite)
Albright: Sonata for Alto Saxophone and Piano
Schulhoff: Hot Sonata for alto saxophone & piano
Denisov: Sonata for Alto Saxophone and Piano

The recording opens on the Paul Hindemith work Viola Sonata Op. 11, No. 4, beginning with the lushly ornate Fantasie, the thoughtful Thema mit Variationen and the pronounced Finale (mit Variationen) and then we are brought a quartet forth from William Albright in Sonata for Alto Saxophone and Piano (which opens on the skittish Two-Part Invention, the fragile La follia nuova: A lament for George Cacioppo, the playfully flirtatious Scherzo Will o’ the Wisp, culminating with the lording affair Recitative and Dance.

The third piece is by Irwin Schulhoff and is Hot Sonata for alto saxophone & piano, which opens on the confident 1st Movement, the impassioned 2nd Movement, the gentler, perhaps more daring 3rd Movement, closing on the flourishing 4th Movement, the album closing on the work of Edison Denisov’s Sonata for Alto Saxophone and Piano (which begins on the eager Allegro, then brings us the more strained Lento, culminating in the spirited Allegro moderato.

www.valentinemichaud.com

Valentine Michaud @ Facebook

www.sileikaite.com

Akvile Sileikaite @ Facebook

AKMI Duo @ Instagram