Beck, Conrad - Nocturne
This meandering piece is similar to Jolivet's Fantasie Impromptu in terms of its harmonic colour and densely voiced piano chords. There is an angst and feeling of restlessness similar to Berg here despite being less harmonically advanced. The opening moments are satisfying simply because the solo saxophone enters immediately with the piano before melancholy, sinking chords lead us down a never-ending spiral. There is such a glut of these kind of mid-20th century French saxophone pieces that sometimes it's a bit hard to sort the wheat from the chaff. This is an interesting enough piece and one that could be really entrancing in performance given the right setting and frame of mind. Serious lyrical introspection characterises Conrad Beck's music and this is a very heavy and gloomy Nocturne. I imagine the piece has rarely been performed at the appropriate time, (11pm) but it might well have a very striking effect on a cloudy summer's night before the breaking of a storm. Londeix recorded this piece on his Le Saxophone Francais album.