Roger Boutry - Divertimento

Brian Kachur, alto saxophone
Nathan Canfield, piano

Allegro ma non troppo 0:00
Andante 3:16
Presto 6:43

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

Roger Boutry (1932–2019) was a prolific French composer and conductor, as well as a virtuosic pianist. Following his secondary studies at Lycée Chaptal, he was admitted to the Paris Conservatory in 1944, and proceeded to win numerous first prizes in piano performance, accompaniment, composition, conducting, and chamber music. Boutry then began an international concert career, playing under renowned conductors across Italy, Germany, Belgium, United States, the former USSR, Australia, and Japan. As a conductor, he held positions with the Opéra de Monte-Carlo Orchestra, RAI National Symphony Orchestra in Rome, Orchestre Lamoreux, and the French Republican Guard Band, among many others. In 1962, Boutry was appointed as a professor at the Paris Conservatory, where he taught harmony from 1962–1997.

Boutry’s compositional voice positioned him as both a traditionalist and a pioneer, as he regularly combined atonal writing with familiar musical forms and strong thematic elements. Influences from other French composers, including Debussy and Ravel, can also be heard in Boutry’s expressive melodies across his catalog of over 100 published works. His contributions to the saxophone literature include numerous compositions for solo, quartet, chamber, and full symphonic works.
Written in 1963, Divertimento was written for alto saxophone and string orchestra, and is one of Boutry’s most popular compositions. The other major work for saxophone written by Boutry is his Sérénade. Divertimento was written as a compulsory competition piece for the Paris Conservatory competition in 1963. It has heavy jazz influences in its melodic and harmonic writing, and has strong elements of syncopation and swing style rhythms, reminiscent of jazz and ragtime music of the early 20th century. It appears in three contrasting movements: Allegro ma non troppo, Andante, and Presto.