Concerto Piccolo

Swedish composer Erland von Koch‘s (1910 - 2009) first work for saxophone was Concerto for Alto Saxophone and Orchestra (1959) and dedicated to Sigurd Raschèr. The successful collaboration would blossom into a sustained releationship and several more pieces for the saxophone. Correspondence between the two, held at the Sigurd M. Raschèr Archive, State University of New York at Fredonia, show frequent communication and evidence of Concerto Piccolo’s development in November 1961.

The name Concerto Piccolo refers to the shorter two-movement structure of the work, as opposed to the three-movement concerto paradigm. Raschèr and von Koch communicated throughout the composition during which von Koch solicited specific advice from the virtuoso. Concerto Piccolo was conceived to include the full expressive capability of the soprano and alto saxophones while thoughtfully residing in their most beautiful tessitura. The Raschèr’s premiered Concerto Piccolo on October 10, 1962 in Sweden at the Stiftelsen Malmo Konserthus and continued to perform the work to rave reviews throughout their careers.

The Raschèr collection at SUNY Fredonia holds 22 programs from performances of Concerto Piccolo with evidence of additional performances (recordings, radio transmissions, constructed timelines, etc.). In addition to the version with orchestra, von Koch made a piano reduction (1965) represented in this recording, and an orchestration for wind band (1975).

“What a refined, aristocratic gentleman he was, soft spoken and very sincere. The first time I met him was in Stockholm at his very spacious Victorian-like penthouse apartment. We worked through his sketches for the Concerto Piccolo at his grand piano, all very exciting. The world premiere with orchestra took place in Malmö Sweden. We had performed the rendition with piano several times before that.” - CMR