Unraveled
Linn Records (2025) CKD 779
Works by Maurice Ravel, Jean-Philippe Rameau, Mikel Urquiza, and Joan Pérez-Villegas
To celebrate Maurice Ravel's 150th anniversary in 2025, Kebyart aims to explore his unique compositional legacy, even though the composer never wrote for saxophone quartet.
The album includes Kebyart's transcriptions of Le Tombeau de Couperin and Pavane pour une infante défunte by Ravel, along with arrangements of French Baroque works by Rameau, highlighting both Ravel's admiration for ornamentation and his influence on contemporary composers.
New pieces by Mikel Urquiza and Joan Pérez-Villegas explore Ravel's musical philosophy, delving into its radical simplicity, subtle rhythmic layers, and inventive structures.
Through these works, Kebyart aims to unravel Ravel's complex yet elegant style, blending the past with the future in a journey of musical discovery.
"(...) 'Ravel wrote nothing for saxophone quartet, and I may have started listening to the album as a skeptic, but I should have known from Kebyart's previous recordings that this would be a sophisticated divertimento where they would use their range to bring different timbres to Ravel's lines and illuminate them with character and clarity. An effective journey from the past to the present.'
Andrew McGregor, April 2025, BBC Radio 3 - Record Review
Traum der Jugend
Linn Records (2023) CKD 719
Works by Jörg Widmann, Felix & Fanny Mendelssohn and Johann Sebastian Bach
With this album, aptly titled Traum der Jugend, the young musicians of Kebyart have fulfilled a long-cherished dream. Driven by their eagerness to reveal new worlds of sound, the saxophone quartet has intertwined works from different eras and given them a new and unconventional air through their own arrangements.
Taking as his starting point Jörg Widmann's 7 Capricci - a work written especially for the quartet that sparked the idea for this recording - Kebyart traces a myriad of musical connections that travel from Felix Mendelssohn, one of Widmann's favorite composers, to Johann Sebastian Bach, himself a source of inspiration for Mendelssohn.
The program culminates with a tribute to Fanny Mendelssohn, whose skillful compositions played a key role in the development of her brother Felix's musical personality.
"(...) Kebyart's remarkable virtuosity, precise ensemble coordination, tonal elegance and musical expressiveness were on full display (...). The qualities of the ensemble are outstanding and were magnificently enhanced by the technical execution."
Holger Arnold, April 2024, Fonoforum
Lectures différentes
Linn Records (2022) CKD 691
Works by Igor Stravinsky, Peter Eötvös, Joseph Haydn and Joan Pérez-Villegas
Lectures différentes' is a creation of Kebyart, a young and energetic Spanish ensemble of four talented saxophonists who are revitalizing the way classical music is communicated.
For their first recording, the group has arranged works from the standard repertoire without qualms, creating new and refreshing versions: from Stravinsky's Pulcinella, a modern take on 18th century music, to Joan Pérez-Villegas' fantasia on García Lorca's popular melodies Canciones antiguas españolas and Haydn's String Quartet Op. 33 No. 3.
The program also includes the premiere recording of Eötvös' own Lectures différentes. The idea of "different lectures" brings together all the pieces on the album, as the saxophone quartet becomes the interlocutor to offer a modern and different look at the music of the past.
The idiosyncratic approach of the saxophones, enhanced by the ensemble's own arrangements, highlights different facets of the works.
"The transparent and colorful interpretation, extremely slender and agile, of the four musicians results in an attractive and exquisite CD."
Remy Frank, 04/26/2022, Pizzicato
Accents
Music Column (2017) COM0371 02
Works by Salvador Brotons, György Ligeti, Anton Webern, Héctor Parra, and Béla Bartók.
"A chamber album of marvelous freshness and expressive richness. A revelatory disc."
Javier Perez Senz, 1/5/2018, Revista Musical Catalana
Traum der Jugend
Traum der Jugend (Dream of Youth). A short film with music by Fanny and Felix Mendelssohn.
Both siblings enjoyed an exceptional artistic education and she was equally as gifted as her brother. However, only Felix was able to gain real public recognition as a composer. Their father wrote to Fanny by letter, "Music will perhaps become Felix's profession, whereas for you it can and should only be an ornament."
Schubertiade
Can you imagine four saxophones playing at a Schubertiada? Welcome to a story about classical music, Schubert and love between the 19th and 21st centuries.
SCHUBERTIADE, a film by Kebyart & Qué Rico Mambo Productions. 2019.
MUSIC Kebyart Ensemble, saxophone quartet: Adagio - String Quartet No. 10 D87. Franz Schubert.