The quartet was formed in 1986 and currently
consists of:
Oriol Pares - soprano saxophone, Chr Hougaard - alto saxophone,
Lauritz Hædersdal Eller - tenor saxophone and
Per Egholm - baritone saxophone.
For many years now, the
quartet has been specializing in the performance of contemporary music. On
the two compact discs dedicated to the subject,
the quartet unfurls a number of the more than one hundred
and fifty different pieces of music which have been composed explicitly for the quartet.
These pieces display colors illuminating a myriad of nuances of saxophone
timbres and modes of performance, with styles that range from intimate
minimalism to super-complex structural music.
The group's second CD, with music composed by Per Nørgaard, Ib Nørholm and
Pelle Gudmundsen-Holmgreen, was nominated for the 2000 Grammy Classical
Awards in Denmark.
In addition to this energetic and creative engagement, the quartet has
persistently been combining pieces of rhythmic music with the more strictly
classical works in their concerts played all over the world.
For example, Argentinean tangos penned by the renowned composer Astor
Piazzolla are also presented on a CD entitled Tango. The group has also
played some of the new art-music, klezmer, and a number of endearing jazz
arrangements.
The members of quartet have always been aficionados of
Johann Sebastian Bach. Over the last many years, they have been playing
extracts from The Goldberg Variations and The Art of the Fugue in their
concerts. It goes without saying that J. S. Bach is one of the most
important composers in European music history and these two monumental
pieces offer testimony to the enormous capacity of his compositional
efforts.
The quartet has toured in the USA, England, Scotland, Germany, France, Italy,
the Czech Republic, Poland, Russia, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Greece,
Switzerland, Norway and Iceland.