By Nancy Plum

Audiences usually identify the saxophone with such jazz and blues superstars as Charlie Parker and John Coltrane, but New Century Saxophone Quartet has shattered that image. For more than 30 years, this ensemble has shown that four saxophones can well match the pitch and dynamic range of a string quartet, amassing an impressive repertory for this combination of instruments along the way. The four members of New Century Saxophone Quartet brought their combination of “skillful artistry and down-home fun” to Richardson Auditorium last Tuesday night as part of the 57th season of the Princeton University Summer Chamber Concerts series. Performing music spanning more than 270 years, the Quartet well demonstrated the saxophone’s abilities to emerge from smoky jazz clubs to the forefront of the classical concert stage.

Saxophone players Michael Stephenson (soprano), Chris Hemingway (alto), Stephen Pollock (tenor), and Drew Hays (baritone) have commissioned a number of works for their unique ensemble, as well as playing transcriptions of pieces composed for other instrumentation. The Quartet began Tuesday night’s concert with settings of three pieces representing the pinnacle of counterpoint: Johann Sebastian Bach’s The Art of the Fugue. Considered one of the greatest musical works ever created, Bach’s collection of fugues and canons developed one principal subject to show all the possibilities of 18th-century counterpoint. New Century Saxophone Quartet performed Contrapuncti Nos. 1, 9 and 10, with the opening themes cleanly introduced by alto saxophonist Hemingway. Stephenson’s soprano sax, rarely heard in symphonic settings, displayed a timbre similar to an oboe as the ensemble conveyed a relaxed tempo to bring out Bach’s intricate counterpoint.

Throughout the three short Bach Contrapuncti, fugal entries were clean, as the Quartet toyed imaginatively with cadences in tempos a bit slower than one might hear if these pieces were played on a keyboard. The Quartet players displayed the most virtuosic technique in Contrapunctus No. 9, with Hays’ baritone saxophone reaching into an especially low register.

The New Century musicians moved quickly from the 18th to the 21st century with three contemporary works for saxophone ensemble. The two movements of Jun Nagao’s 2002 Quatuor de Saxophones were contrasting in character, with the homophonic “Aspirer” showing a well-blended sound. The movement titled “Chercher” lived up to its definition of “to seek” with a frantic quality, as if the players were uniformly searching for something. This movement was especially notable for the clean duets in thirds between instruments.

The Quartet reached full volume in a movement from John Mackey’s 2012 Unquiet Spirits, an impressionistic work which proved not to be so quiet when all four Quartet members unleashed the dynamic range of the music. Some of the Quartet’s most innovative playing came in Paul Harvey’s arrangement of three fiddle tunes by 18th-century Scottish poet Robert Burns, whose compositional skills have been under-recognized. “My Wife’s a Winsome Wee Thing” came across in a sea shanty style, with soprano saxophonist Stephenson providing a sweet discant to the melody. Stephenson was also featured in the lyrical “My Love is Like a Red, Red, Rose,” which built the instrumental palette elegantly, beginning with the soprano sax and gradually adding the others. The Quartet concluded this set with a jaunty setting of “Bannocks O’Bearmeal,” with Stephenson eliciting an impressive bagpipe sound from the soprano saxophone.

Among the many transcriptions in New Century Quartet’s repertory are no doubt works originally conceived for string quartet. Antonin Dvorák’s String Quartet No. 12 in F Major dates from the composer’s time in the U.S., with a fresh American sound and folk-like melodic material. These traits transferred well to Quartet’s rendition of an arrangement of this work for saxophones. Dvorák knew the instrument from its roots in early American jazz, and Michael Stephenson’s free and open soprano saxophone melody in the “Finale” was especially representative of Dvorák’s affinity for America and its musical traditions.

Closing the concert with selections from Leonard Bernstein’s West Side Story, New Century Saxophone Quartet showed the lyrical side of the ensemble, as well as refined dynamic shading. Alto saxophonist Hemingway showed another side of the instrument with a pitch-bending and rousing gospel encore — definitely something Princeton audiences do not hear every day and an educational moment in itself.

Princeton Summer Chamber Concerts will conclude the 2024 season on Monday, July 15 at 7:30 p.m. at Richardson Auditorium with a performance by the Balourdet Quartet. Featured in this concert will be music of Mozart, Beethoven and Canadian American composer Karim Al-Zand. Tickets are free and are available online through the Chamber Concerts website at princetonsummerchamberconcerts.org.