LAST AUTUMN FOR SAXOPHONE AND CELLO (2008)
BY MICHAEL HERSCH
WITH DANIEL GAISFORD, CELLO
"Last Autumn is the second in a trilogy of large-scale works
composed between 2005-2008. Last Autumn is in forty-one movements.
Companioned silently throughout the work are text fragments of the
late W.G. Sebald. The music is scored for saxophone and cello and the
work, which is a little over two hours in duration, is intended to
occupy a full concert program.
The work was simultaneously written in two versions,
the other version being for horn and cello. In the early stages of
writing the piece, saxophonist Gary Louie approached me about a new
work for saxophone. The possibility of simultaneously making two
versions of a work for two extraordinary instrumentalists, for two
vastly different instruments - both of which in the right hands are
capable of a remarkable range of unique expressive possibilities - was
of great interest to me.
The cello part in both cases was written
specifically for cellist Daniel Gaisford, an artist for whom I have
the highest regard. Writing this work differed substantially from the first work of the cycle, "The Vanishing
Pavilions" (2005), as in that case I was both the composer and
performer. "Last Autumn" was commissioned by Gary Louie and the
Washington Performing Arts Society.”
- Michael Hersch