The Belgian Saxophone Ensemble has pieced together a performance called Hommage à Sax that will present the musical history of the instrument, writes Anand Holla

As a child, Belgian instrument maker Adolphe Sax learned the craft of making and tweaking musical instruments by experimenting at his father’s carpentry workshop.
Once he learnt to play the flute and the clarinet and moved to Paris in the early 1840s, Sax began whipping out his new range of instruments, mostly for the French Army, called saxhorns. Sometime in 1846, the maverick unveiled his dearest work of genius – the saxophone – and forever changed how classical and jazz music would sound.
Celebrating the 200th birth anniversary of Adolphe Sax this November, the Belgian Saxophone Ensemble (BSE) has pieced together a performance called Hommage à Sax that will present the musical history of our most recent acoustic instrument.
On Friday, at the Katara Opera House, in co-operation with the Embassy of Belgium in Qatar, BSE’s Hommage à Sax will feature six mouthpieces, 60 fingers, and 152 keys, all flawlessly in sync to trace the journey of this popular woodwind instrument.
Comprising 12 passionate young saxophonists, the BSE formed two years ago. Conducted by Cezariusz Gadzina, the founder and the first conductor of the European Saxophone Ensemble, BSE believes in blending various categories of music such as contemporary, classical, jazz, improvised, and traditional.
The signature sound of BSE relies as much on exploring the endless range of sounds of the saxophone itself, as it does in drawing from the strains of all the instruments of the extended saxophone family.
While the ensemble’s repertoire consists mainly of pieces specially written for it, its music – reflecting the versatility of the instrument that ranges from the bass saxophone to the sopranino – spans “from avant-garde to neo-classical and sometimes it swings and sometimes it creates grooves.”
For Doha’s audience, Hommage à Sax promises to be both entertaining and enlightening given how it will present the works of notable contemporary Flemish composers “who spotlight the rich sonority of this instrument.” According to BSE, the concert will open with Chant Sacré by Hector Berlioz, the first ever piece to feature the saxophone. This will be followed by the first saxophone quartet ever written, Premier Quatuor, Op. 53, by Belgian composer Jean-Baptiste Singelée.
“But the history of the saxophone would not be complete without one of the most popular pieces in its repertoire, namely Scaramouche, in which Darius Milhaud emphasises its
romantic side for light music,” the BSE says. As for the new
pieces by Hanne Deneire, Gerard De Clercq, Bert Joris, Jef
Neve and Cezariusz Gadzina, the BSE has included them
to show how the saxophone suits different musical styles and structures.
Last year, BSE performed four shows across Belgium, and this year, their Hommage à Sax performance has wowed crowds at Antwerp in May and Brussels in June.
Gadzina, the director of BSE who created the group, has also earned the title of European Cultural Ambassador. Explaining their artistic vision, the BSE says, “The repertoire is drawn from the widest possible range of genres, but with great care to allow the Ensemble scope to demonstrate its own special artistic qualities to the full. For this reason, several of the pieces are compositions specially written for them by modern composers, many of them Flemish.”
Traditionally, the ensemble has followed the Greek belief in the unity of art forms, which means they perform not just for the ear but for the eye too. So expect to be taken in by the musicians’ stage presence as much as by their mastery over their instruments. As the great jazz saxophonist Charlie Parker said, “Don’t play the saxophone. Let it play you.”
Tickets available at Virgin Megastores in Villaggio and Landmark.