A tribute to the deceased in September 2008 German-Argentine composer Mauricio Kagel.
When in the spring of 2003 we approached Maurico Kagel with the request to examine the possibility of composing a piece for saxophone trio, we were shortly afterwards absolutely delighted to receive his very friendly reply. This was that our CD which we had sent him had pleased him very much; with regard to his composing something however, he could not give us much hope as his calendar was completely full for the next few years.
"… yet I have an idea which might be helpful to you: Among my compositions is "Der mündliche Verrat" (The oral treason) a stage work, for which I at first wrote a piano score. It's made up entirely of relatively short character pieces, and I'm sure something good could be selected from these. For "Trahison Orale" I haven't prescribed any particular orchestration, but have made a sort of piano score, because this seemed to me to be the most suitable form in which to put my intentions into effect. One of the most important lessons we can learn from Romanticism is the primacy of the musical substance over a specific tone colour: if your power of imagination is impressive enough, then with interchangeable instruments a means of expression can be found which will do it justice."
Mauricio Kagel, from a letter to Sax Allemande
In 1816 - 1817 Schubert composed the two string trios which we selected for this recording. The opus D471, with its complete first movement and second movement which survives only as a fragment, makes up the formal framework of the CD. Optimism and joie de vivre in the neo-classical Allegro start the recording off, with the melancholy of the fragmental movement ending it with no really comprehensible closure. Incorporated along with this, the complete opus D581, composed in 1817, forms a dialogue with the music of Mauricio Kagel.
"In the course of our approach to the "Kagel Schubert Project", it was almost uncanny experiencing how the two musical spheres moved towards one another. Transitions and editing points engendered a mutual diffusion of the musical material; allowing the Schubert to be heard in the Kagel, and the Kagel in the Schubert."
Sax Allemande
