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Performers
- Amstel Quartet four saxophones
- Keuris Quartet four saxophones
- Maxim Shalygin conductor
Programme
- Maxim ShalyginTodos los fuegos el fuego (2018–2019) — for eight saxophones
An evening-length masterpiece (ca. 89 min.) for eight saxophones — the second part of Shalygin’s cycle Similar, inspired by Julio Cortázar’s eponymous collection of stories.
Shalygin wrote Todos los fuegos el fuego for the Dutch top ensembles Amstel Quartet and Keuris Quartet. The composer loves the versatile, mystical sound of the saxophone, the instrument par excellence to translate Cortázar’s literary world into music. The writer was an avid jazz lover.
The Ukrainian composer Maxim Shalygin, who lives in The Hague, has established himself as one of the most outstanding composers in the Netherlands. His work can be heard in the most prominent concert halls and festivals, from the Concertgebouw to November Music. Shalygin writes music with a strong emotional appeal and a spiritual character. He does not hesitate to go beyond the boundaries of reason. In doing so, he says, he finds truth and beauty, which can produce refined and serene notes, but also rebellious and even disturbing music.
Press Quotes
“A self-conducting Shalygin finished the job with flying colours, in an idiom in which the most diverse stylistic elements enter into a wonderful symbiosis ... Assisted by a phenomenally playing Keuris and Amstel Quartet, Shalygin moulded it all into a perfectly logical and determined discourse (NRC on Shalygin’s Todos los fuegos el fuego).”
“Adembenemend (De Volkskrant over Canto d’inizio e fine, gekozen als een van de beste cd’s van 2019).”
“Crushing. Breathtaking. It is not difficult to point out the most impressive concert in November Music. That was Maxim Shalygin’s fiery Todos los Fuegos el Fuego, written for eight saxophones. For more than an hour, they played with almost superhuman dedication and control... The music was intense, changing from subdued beauty to dry, rattling rhythms and savage, brutal harmonies. A gripping experience, the audience agreed (Brabants Dagblad).”