Kenneth Radnofsky

Great artists give free concerts at New England Conservatory—simply because they teach here.

Kenneth Radnofsky of the NEC saxophone faculty performs on soprano and alto saxophones with pianist Eliko Akahori, tenor Frank Kelley, and the Around the World Saxophone Ensemble, a group that combines the forces of Radnofsky's teaching studios at NEC and other local schools, along with guest artists from around the world.

While England may not spring immediately to mind as a center for saxophone music, tonight's program is made up almost entirely of work by British composers originally written for other instruments, including a song cycle that sets such familiar William Blake poems as Infant Joy and The Lamb.

Originally written for solo oboe, Benjamin Britten's Six Metamorphoses after Ovid references the stories of Pan, Phaeton, Niobe, Bacchus, Narcissus, and Arethusa. Edward Elgar's Romance for bassoon and Virelai for violin have been arranged for saxophone by Radnofsky. Two works for oboe by Ralph Vaughan Williams, the Concerto and Ten Blake Songs, are transformed as saxophone vehicles, with Frank Kelley singing Blake's texts.

The program concludes with two contemporary works for saxophone. Mark-Anthony Turnage's Two Elegies Framing a Shout is written for soprano saxophone and piano. Composer Alain Crepin writes of De 3 à 1000, pour ensemble de Saxophones à géometrie variable: "Three musicians are enough to perform this work and all imaginable combinations are possible. Specially written for large groups, this work was performed at Dinant in 1994 and 1998 by a group of 1,236 saxophonists conducted by the composer."