As a result of the Second Prize and the Award for the best performance of a work by a Spanish composer last November 2021 at the Certamen Internacional para Jóvenes Intérpretes Pedro Bote (Villafranca de los Barros, Extremadura), we could participate in the fourteenth edition of the Ciclo de Música Actual de Badajoz. Thanks to the work of the Festival and the Sociedad Filarmónica de Badajoz, among which we highlight the work of Javier González Pereira and the attention he gave us the months before the concert, it was possible to commission and premiere a work composed by the composer María José Fontán.
June was the title that María José chose to headline her piece and that, curiously, was the only one that broke with the terminological monotony of the rest of the program we played (Sax Quartet, Quatour pour saxophones, Cuarteto de Saxofones, Saxophonie, Andante et Scherzo). María José herself emphasized in the small talk she gave with the composer Jerónimo Gordillo before the concert in Puebla de la Calzada that June does not pretend to be a descriptive title, but a reference to what surrounded her life at the time she composed the work. This music makes use of several extended techniques, such as various types of slap, transition effects between trills and vibrato, key noises, air sounds, etc. that are employed in an alternation between rhythmic sections that contrast with other freer ones.
On the morning of 12 November we were able to work with her, again in a very interesting exchange between composer and performers, in which we managed to adopt a new vision of the work and take advantage of the extended techniques that the composer uses. In this case, it was her first work for saxophone quartet, a fact that we are especially pleased, since making known our formation to composers who had not yet delved into it may involve the creation of more music in the future to enrich our repertoire.
In this experience we could also meet the composer Jerónimo Gordillo, whose work Cuarteto de Saxofones (1996) was also included in our program. It was a pleasure to share this experience with him and to hear his words at the conference he offered with María José.
Thanks to the Sociedad Filarmónica de Badajoz, Javier González and María José Fontán for trusting us to make this premiere. Thanks to Jerónimo Gordillo for betting on the saxophone in his compositions. It was an absolute pleasure!
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