To my friend Pedro, written with all my affection, enthusiasm and passion, which he deserves.
Congratulations on your newest acheivement.
This composition, Reflections, is a metaphor for all of our reflections, problems and projects… At
the beginning we face them with fear. With tender affection and melancholy in the next moment,
and with great joy and energy by the end, when we finally achieve and overcome them. This could
easily be the sound track to a career in music, difficult and challenging, but with much effort and
enthusiasm we achieve happiness.
Reflections – for tenor saxophone and piano – was commissioned by soloist Pedro González
Villarroel for his final concert at Vigo’s Superior Conservatory of Music. The piece, which is of
great technical difficultly for the soloist, begins with a mournful and forbidding feeling as do all of
life’s reflections. From this heavy, reflexive beginning the piece moves toward an allegro in which
the composer hides the measure, playing with uneven meters and changing accents, creating
very unstable atmosphere.
The main part of the work, largo molto expressivo, momentarily transports us to the beginning, to
the reflection, to the memory, to the melancholy, to the tenderness… this tenderness is evident in
the subsequent waltz in which the soloist and the piano share a playful dialogue, full of colour
and passion.
For the final section of the composition, Andrés Álvarez uses a quite alegre and energetic dance.
In a combined measure of 6/8 and 2/4 for the tenor saxophone, this work demands proficiency at
the highest level both technically and in register.