Bach - Polyphonic Variations

In its highly applauded Bach programme (2000) BL!NDMAN presents a special performance of Bach’s four Choral Partitas. Eric Sleichim has based a transcription for saxophone quartet on this little-known organ music. The exceptional range of sounds produced by the saxophones evokes both the harshness of certain baroque organs and the velvety sounds of the oboes d’amore, or English horns, in Bach’s most beautiful arias. The decision to perform the Choral Partitas using wind instruments is also based on the source of all music: the breath. In its own distinctive view of polyphonic music, BL!NDMAN links these baroque scores to contemporary compositions – by Louis Andriessen, John Cage, Steve Reich and Sleichim himself – all of whom have their own special view of polyphony.