Partitas for Saxophone

Even before I entered conservatory to study the saxophone, it was clear there was one composer who stood head and shoulders above the rest: Johann Sebastian Bach. During my studies I used movements from the violin sonatas and partitas as etudes, and realized I could spend endless hours on them without getting bored – and that for someone who hated practicing. Only much later did I learn that scales and etudes are futile if one approaches them with aversion. I therefore thank my present finger technique to the fact that I listened with gusto to recordings by Bach specialists from the 1980s, and whose tone, phrasing and articulation I did my best to emulate on my own instrument.