This is the first studio work of the Spanish saxophone duo Zavasax, with the collaboration of the pianist Juan Carlos Cornelles, and recorded in 2015 at the Eduardo del Pueyo Auditorium in Zaragoza. The training, which has 8 years of experience, has chosen to combine original works and transcriptions. Promoters of the “Alcosax” International Festival-Course, have been invited to different festivals and competitions throughout Europe.

The work presented by Javier Alloza and Juani Palop in this compact disc is unique for the combination of pieces, a fresh repertoire, shows the versatility of the training that is capable of passing the transcription of one of the great of universal music as it is Bach, to one of the composers of rabid news and success, as it is Ferrer Ferran. Since the saxophone is an instrument of great flexibility it can be adapted to different styles and compositional techniques, and in this disc it is demonstrated from the musicality and good taste, although its timbre and characteristics are not always faithful to the style.

We can listen to the XV Bach Inventions, conceived as a didactic notebook for the keyboard and that here sound renewed with the saxophone bell. Always treating the pieces with respect and contributing to each of them the possibilities that this instrument can provide. Somehow, the instrument revives the swing that is within the music of the baroque master, when listening to the alto and tenor sax duo one could not help thinking about the performances of Bobby McFerrin. Zavasax has managed to treat Bach’s music in a way that does not sound alien to the saxophone, giving his personal touch and trying to avoid copying the keyboard.

Secondly, Singelée’s Great Concerting Duo brings us back to the original saxophone music. Being one of the first composers to treat this instrument seriously as a classic. This is one of the most representative works of the chamber repertoire for the saxophone, originally written for soprano, viola and piano saxophone, and later adapted for soprano, alto and piano. In the piece we find strong influences of the Italian operatic style that Zavasax manages to capture through a great rapport with Cornelles on the piano. In his three movements Risoluto, Andante and Allegretto, the duo brings us closer to the most melodramatic romanticism of the XIX, fruit of the taste for lounge music.

Changing totally style, we present the work Sonatina Parsax for two alto saxophones and piano, by the Valencian composer Ferrer Ferran. Very well distributed in 3 movements, where the first draws attention and fixes the attention of the listener for the rhythms and effects that stand out. In the second, they achieve beautiful and undulating melodic lines of great tenderness, and finally the third in the form of swing, great show and exhibition for the saxophonists.

And finally, this piece includes the piece Adria by Christian Lauba , a French composer who has devoted a large part of his compositional activity to the saxophone. In this case, the piece is for two alto saxophones. In it the composer prints sounds, rhythms and intervals of the Mediterranean, introducing multiphons and effects according to the instrument.

Inventions, an album to listen and enjoy the sound of the saxophone, very interesting for young students and a step in the history of music, with the possibilities that this instrument offers.