Ida Gotkovsky - Brillance

Brian Kachur, alto saxophone
Nathan Canfield, piano

Déclamé 0:00
Desinvolte 1:48
Dolcissimo 3:46
Final 6:53

Performed live in McClintock Choral and Recital Room on May 14, 2024 as part of my first Doctoral recital at Northwestern University.

*At the very end of the 2nd movement, the bluetooth speaker that I used to project the drone for Berio's Sequenza VII made an unwanted sound, so I had to retrieve it and turn it off, for those wondering what happened there.

Born in 1933, French composer and pianist Ida Gotkovsky is known for her profound contributions to the musical literature, including chamber music, symphonies, instrumental music, vocal music, ballets, and operas. Her musically talented family nurtured her musicianship early on, and she began composing at the age of eight. She went on to study at the National Conservatory of Music in Paris, and was greatly influenced by her teachers, including Olivier Messiaen and Nadia Boulanger. Gotkovsky showed great promise as a young pianist and composer, winning numerous competitions and awards while still completing her studies.

Having developed an interest in the use of modes, additive meter, and lyricism, Gotkovsky began to incorporate numerous contemporary techniques into her musical language. Across her works, she frequently self-borrows; rather than recycling material however, she develops earlier melodies and changes their harmonies, creating a dialogue throughout her compositions. This is consistent with her artistic goal: to “create a universal work and assure by contemporary language, with vigorous structure, a unity of musical expression to cross the expanse of time.”
Brillance was written in 1974 and is one of her most popular works. It is the second work written for saxophone by Gotkovsky. Other works for saxophone written by Gotkovsky include Incandescence for tenor saxophone and piano, Variations Pathétiques for alto saxophone and piano, Concerto for alto saxophone and orchestra (her first work for saxophone), and Quatuor pour saxophones in six movements. Brillance was dedicated to saxophonist François Daneels and was written as a compulsory contest piece for a competition at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels in Brussels, Belgium, where Daneels was a professor.

The work is written in four contrasting movements: Déclamé, Désinvolte, Dolcissimo, and Final (Prestissimo). The second movement of another work of Gotkovsky’s, Poème du Feu for wind ensemble (1978) contains borrowed and developed material from the Final of Brillance. Similarly, the Désinvolte contains similarities in motif and material to the Scherzo of the Quatuor pour saxophones. Countless other similarities and quotes between different pieces by Gotkovsky exist, contributing to the unique and individualistic quality of her compositional output.