Italian Saxophone Quartet, Divertimento Ensemble/ Sandro Gorli Stradivarius STR 33838 ****

The Italian composer Franco Donatoni (1927-2000) failed. And that’s something to be grateful for. He liked the idea of automatism, and strove to eliminate spontaneity and subjectivity from his music. But, dry as this may sound, Donatoni was a dab hand at creating ingenious mechanisms that took on an exuberant life of their own. That’s especially true in the works that frame this collection, Hot (1989), a homage that sounds like it could only have been written by someone totally besotted with jazz, and

Rasch II (

1985), for the unusual combination of saxophone quartet, vibraphone, marimba, percussion and piano. The other ensemble pieces included here (

Flag,

1987 and

Tema

, 1981) are too playful to sound objective, too distinctive in instrumental colouring to sound other than personal.

Luci

(1995) is a short, stretching exploration for solo alto flute. See url.ie/7lbq