Concerto for Saxophones and Orchestra

In addition to soprano and tenor saxophone (solo), the score of Sierra’s Concerto for Saxophones and Orchestra calls for an orchestra of piccolo, two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, bass clarinet, two bassoons, four horns, three trumpets, three trombones, timpani, percussion (drum set, bass drum, tambourine, marimba, vibraphone, suspended cymbal, tam-tam, cabaza, gong, triangle, wood block), piano, harp, and strings. The concerto is about 20 minutes long.

Puerto Rico’s most prominent composer of concert music, Roberto Sierra — born October 9, 1953, in Vega Baja, Puerto Rico — is also one of the most frequently performed of all American composers. This stems in part from the broad range of his style, which speaks the languages of jazz, Afro-Caribbean, and a wide swath of European concert music with equal facility, whether stylistically isolated or in subtle combination. His Concerto for Saxophones and Orchestra is a case in point. He has also been incredibly prolific, writing music for an extraordinary variety of instruments, ensembles, and occasions, from tiny solo works to seven symphonies, numerous concertos, and a large-scale Mass. 

Sierra’s musical environment in the environs of San Juan naturally included salsa bands and other popular music, and that music has remained a part of his own language — his Sinfonía No. 3 is even subtitled La Salsa. On the classical side, the great cellist Pablo Casals established the important Casals Festival there in 1955 and lived there for decades. There are two major orchestras as well as the Puerto Rico Conservatory, where Roberto Sierra studied before attending the University of Puerto Rico. Sierra was later an administrator at both schools, serving as chancellor of the Conservatory. He taught at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, from 1992 until his retirement in 2021, and held the title of Old Dominion Foundation Professor in the Humanities. He lives in Camillus, New York, near Syracuse.

Sierra’s cosmopolitan facility of style and technique grew via studies in Europe, including time with the great avant-garde individualist György Ligeti between 1979 and 1982. This was during a time when Ligeti’s own style was changing significantly and beginning to incorporate the influence of African polyphonic drumming, his knowledge of which he credited Sierra with enriching. For his part, Sierra has employed Afro-Caribbean, South and Central American, and Spanish musical traditions, even as his treatment of instruments and the orchestra are based on European models. His approach is much in keeping with the longstanding seeding of “classical” music with folk and popular ideas in the music of Handel, Dvořák, Bartók, and Copland. 20th-century Latin American precedents include Ginastera in Argentina, Villa-Lobos in Brazil, and Chávez in Mexico, among many others.

Roberto Sierra first came to wide prominence in 1987 with the premiere of his Júbilo at Carnegie Hall in New York by the Milwaukee Symphony under Czech conductor Zdeněk Mácal. Named that orchestra’s composer-in-residence, he wrote several pieces for them, resulting in a full CD of his work in 1994. His twenty-plus concertos include Concierto Caribe for flutist Carol Wincenc, a double concerto for violin and guitar with orchestra premiered by soloists Frank Peter Zimmermann and Manuel Barrueco, three percussion concertos, and many others. His Concerto for Orchestra was composed on commission from the Koussevitzky Foundation for the Philadelphia Orchestra’s centennial; he has also been composer-in-residence with that ensemble. His music has been commissioned and performed by many of the major orchestras in the country, and he has had a particularly strong relationship with the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, D.C., which premiered his major Missa Latina Pro Pace in February 2006; it was subsequently recorded by the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra. The Boston Symphony Orchestra performed Roberto Sierra’s Fandangos in November 2012 under the direction of Giancarlo Guerrero, a consistent proponent of Sierra’s work.

Sierra wrote his Concerto for Saxophones and Orchestra for James Carter, whom Sierra has compared to Paganini. The two shared an artist manager, so he was more than casually aware of Carter’s career. He became fixated on the idea of writing a concerto for Carter, creating a part that allows the saxophonist to shift seamlessly between fully composed and improvised passages. The concerto was commissioned by the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, which premiered it, with Carter as soloist and Neeme Järvi conducting, in October 2002.

Carter plays both tenor and soprano saxophones in the piece, the latter used only in the second and third movements. The first movement begins with an orchestral flourish, then moves into a Latin rhythm under a fully notated tenor saxophone solo. Orchestral winds individually play virtuosic lines in counterpoint to the soloist, like partners in a jazz context. The first improvised opportunity for the saxophone is in a modernist, aleatoric (i.e., free) context, as the rhythmic process dissolves into chaos before regaining its bearings. An improvised cadenza allows the soloist to stretch out, and some lyrical moments begins to show the range of the music.

That lyricism is fully explored in the second movement, featuring soprano saxophone. The form of the movement is almost songlike, with a familiar chord progression. The seemingly free, highly ornamented soprano saxophone solo is fully notated in the first part. The melodic emphasis continues as the soloist switches to tenor sax, but the music, which includes solo improvisation, becomes mysterious and atmospheric in the orchestra. The last episode returns to the song-like form, and ends with an improvised solo cadenza.

The third movement is an orchestral scherzo in 3/8 time. The soloist is back to tenor sax, playing energetic, punchy lines over an orchestra alternately aggressive and delicate, but always active. The soloist switches to soprano and the music moves into a languid, bluesy feel, which remains as tenor sax returns. The scherzo idea returns to finish the movement, ending with another improvised cadenza for tenor sax. Carter will likely use this cadenza to transition to the mood of the finale, which is an irresistible homage to ’50s rock-n-roll — the rhythm tellingly similar to that of the Latin-tinged opening movement. Along with the solo part, there’s great fun in the exuberant simultaneous soloistic lines heard throughout the orchestra right up to the final joyous shout.

ROBERT KIRZINGER

Composer and writer Robert Kirzinger is the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s Director of Program Publications.