Nearly a year on from starting Bachtrack, we keep on finding ever more improbable concert venues. It transpires that the main Blüthner piano showroom, a short stone's throw away from the uber-posh offices in London's Berkeley Square, puts on concerts once a fortnight or so. The concerts are played by aspiring young musicians, they are "by invitation" (in other words, you have to get in touch with Blüthner and ask to be put on their mailing list), and they're free - including the glass or two of wine provided on the house. The whole thing is a pleasantly sociable occasion.
We went along to see pianist Andrew Saunders and saxophonist Tom Law playing a wonderfully mixed programme, including serious classical (Rachmaninov, Debussy, Chopin) and some jazz numbers (most notably Erroll Garner's Misty and an encore of Dave Brubeck's Take Five where the two musicians switched instruments in mid-piece. My personal draw was Piazzolla's Histoire du Tango - I first got to know Piazzolla ten years ago, and I find the music exciting, breathtakingly beautiful or deliciously melancholic, sometimes all at the same time (which is a neat trick if you can do it).
One of the saxophone pieces was of particular historical interest: Joseph Arban's Caprice and Variations for Alto Saxophone and Piano. It's probably one of the very earliest compositions for saxophone: Arban worked for Adolphe Sax, the instrument's inventor, as a demonstrator, and wrote the piece as a virtuoso number to show off what the instrument could do. There aren't many instruments associated with one particular inventor in that way (the Ondes Martenot isn't exactly mainstream, and the Moog Synthesizer never quite made it into the classical world), so it's intriguing to hear something so tangibly close to the historical beginnings of the instrument.