”Darned close to delirious.” Fanfare
"Artistically compelling. Delangle more than lives up to his reputation as one of the world's foremost wind players." American Record Guide; “The stars of this CD are the members of the Taipei Chinese Orchestra, who create sounds that are mysterious, biting, intoxicating, and darned close to delirious.” Fanfare
On his several discs for BIS, the French saxophonist Claude Delangle has given ample proof of his musical curiosity. Besides core repertoire, he has recorded some of the earliest saxophone works, composed for the instrument’s inventor Adolphe Sax, as well as uncompromisingly contemporary music by composers such as Scelsi, Berio and Hosokawa. Eager to widen his horizons he has collaborated not only with pianists and orchestras, but also with singers or percussionists, exploring fields such as Argentine tango or Japanese chamber music. Described as ‘a superb virtuoso and no less so as a musician’ by the reviewer in Le Monde de la Musique, and as ‘simply the mellowest, most subtle, liquid, and dreamy saxophonist I’ve ever heard’ by a colleague in American Record Guide, Delangle has now visited Taiwan, and the Taipei Chinese Orchestra, an ensemble of some 50 musicians, playing traditional Chinese instruments such as erhu, pipa, suona, bronze bells and many others. The programme includes two saxophone concertos by the prominent Taiwanese composer Yiu-Kwong Chung (b.1956), as well as Open Secret, a work composed for Claude Delangle and the orchestra by the young composer Leilei Tian (b. 1971). But besides these original compositions there are also arrangements of two traditional Chinese pieces, which in Claude Delangle’s own words formed a musical entryway for him ‘into the great tradition of Chinese music’. This is the second disc in a collaboration between BIS and Taipei Chinese Orchestra, following Whirling Dance, BIS-1759.
