Sonata for
Soprano Saxophone and Piano

Year: 2002

Duration: 15’

Personnel: Soprano Saxophone, Piano

Commissioned by, and dedicated to James Noyes
Premiered 18 February 2002
Our Saviour’s Atonement Lutheran Church - New York, NY
James Noyes (saxophone) Scott Holden (piano)

Reviews

This work uses the soprano saxophone as an expressive and energetic instrument of classical music in the outer movements. However, the subtone, glissandi, and blue notes that define the “Blues” make it as soulful a movement as you will hear outside of the Village Vanguard.— Anthony Balester, Outstanding Contemporary Saxophone Recordings and Works

“This is a superb piece, and a great addition to the repertoire, for professionals and for college student recitals.”— David Demsey, Saxophone Journal July/August 2010, Volume 34, No. 6

“The jazz influence had… the first word, in Steve Cohen’s tuneful Sonata for Soprano Saxophone… Mr. Cohen’s score was at its most appealing at the start of its meditative Blues movement, when the music crawled through the lower reaches of the instrument’s range.”— Allan Kozinn, New York Times, January 5, 2012

Recordings