Schmitt - Songs de Coppelius
This brief but pretty post-impressionist work has a magical atmosphere and is actually quite descriptive. With unmistakeably French inflections the piece is particularly well suited to the soprano. The meandering opening draws us in before richer arpeggios develop, providing a full-bodied canvass for an enchanting saxophone melody. The twisted character Dr Coppelius is known in the Delibes ballet Coppelia as a magician/inventor, a kind of malevolent Frankenstein. Coppelius is not a one-dimensional character and the strangeness of the harmony in this piece certainly has scope to depict his ambiguous personality.