Stephen Fox, Saxophonist

Born in England, raised in Western Canada and currently based in the Toronto area, saxophonist Stephen Fox began his university studies in physics, achieving a Master of Science degree with a thesis in theoretical plasma physics from the University of Saskatchewan, before deciding on a career in music and receiving a Bachelor of Music (Performance) degree.

He is heard regularly on concert stages in the Toronto area performing on saxophone, clarinet and historical clarinet in professional orchestras and chamber ensembles, and has performed concerti with a number of orchestras in Toronto and elsewhere. He has presented recitals and participated in chamber concerts in Norway, Sweden, Finland, the Czech Republic, Australia and the U.S.A. as well as at various locales across Canada, and was invited to perform at International Clarinet Association ClarinetFests in Stockholm, Salt Lake City, Washington and Tokyo. He is a founding member of the Riverdale Ensemble (performing on modern instruments) and Ossia (period instruments), and along with his colleagues has recorded three chamber music CDs. He has been heard on CBC Radio 2, Czech Radio and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

In addition to performing, Stephen is one of a select handful of clarinet builders in the Western Hemisphere, designing and producing both modern clarinets and reproduction historical instruments which are used by musicians in Europe, Japan, and the U.S.A. as well as Canada. His lectures and demonstrations on musical instrument acoustics, design and history have been heard at universities and conferences throughout Canada and in the U.S.A., Europe, Australia and Asia. From 1994 to 2004 he taught annually at Musikk Instrument Akademiet in Norway, and in 2004 he was invited to teach at the Third International Masterclass for Clarinet at the University of Ostrava in the Czech Republic. In addition to articles in several musical journals, his publishing credits include reconstructing and editing the previously unpublished Trio for clarinet, cello and piano by John Ireland. He has been profiled as "Musician in our Midst" in Toronto's WholeNote magazine, and in 2003 his work was featured on the CTV National News.

Josef Holbrooke

Josef (originally Joseph) Charles Holbrooke (1878-1958) was a prominent British composer of the early 20th century who has almost entirely disappeared from view. Born in London into a musical family, he cut his teeth in the music business by working as an accompanist and songwriter in the music hall, along with his father, from the age of 12. Studies at the Royal Academy of Music followed, and Holbrooke found early fame both as a pianist and as a composer of lavish orchestral works, most notably his tone poems, which earned him the nickname “the Cockney Wagner”. Sufficiently esteemed that his biography - which placed him “in the ranks of the world’s great masters” - was published in 1920, his star faded rapidly after that, due to his anachronistically Romantic musical style, the large resources needed for some of his orchestral music, and his tendency to clash with the musical establishment (not helped by his witty, painfully astute and sometimes outrageous writing as a music critic).

Holbrooke’s vast musical output - eight symphonies, various other orchestral pieces, eight operas, chamber music, piano music and a multitude of songs - is mostly unavailable or only privately published, but thankfully it is now finally beginning to enjoy a revival, at least in Britain. We are indebted to his family for preserving it and making it available for performance.

In the 1920’s Holbrooke developed an affinity for the saxophone - according to his son, he had “a house full of saxophones!” - which he employed in a number of works, culminating in the Concerto Op. 88 for saxophone and orchestra. Completed in 1927, the Concerto was championed by Walter Lear, the first British saxophonist of international repute, and it received several performances in the following few years, both with orchestra and in the piano transcription, before lapsing into obscurity like the rest of Holbrooke’s music.

The Concerto was originally intended to showcase five sizes of saxophone - soprano, alto, tenor, baritone and bass - but by the time of its completion that had been pared down to two or three: either tenor or soprano in the first movement, alto in the second, and a combination of alto and soprano in the third.

The first movement, Barcarolle, is replete with the harmony and flavour of early 20th century British light music. The second movement, Serenata, is highly reminiscent of Debussy; also carrying the alternate title Cyrene, it evokes memories of a Mediterranean cruise which Holbrooke took as a young man. Popular dance rhythms of the 1920s and the flavour of the English music hall run through the third movement, Rondo-Danse (“I've got foxtrot on the brain”, Holbrooke declared in a newspaper interview in 1922); its lighthearted humour and exuberance showcase Holbrooke the light music composer, as much a part of his multifaceted creativity as the Cockney Wagner.

These performances with the Hart House Orchestra mark the North American premiere of the Concerto, and only the second time it has been performed with orchestra in the modern era. The transcription for saxophone and piano has been recorded by Stephen Fox and Ellen Meyer, and appears on the Riverdale Ensemble’s CD Twelve by the Moon-dial (Chestnut Hall Music).