CONCERTO for Saxophone Solo and Orchestra（1947）

Concerto for Saxophone Solo and Orchestra, completed in March 1947, was the first Japanese concerto for the instrument. The
work was premiered in the same month on JOBK Radio, performed by Osawa and the NHK Osaka Broadcasting Orchestra
with Kiyokazu Misawa as the soloist.
　　After the war, Osawa came to believe that society needed high-quality music for the middle class and composed works for
his fellow people living through the post-war period. Influenced by the music of the Occupying Forces, he became passionate
about symphonic jazz, and his music turned to a semi-classical style.
　　This trend is apparent in the concerto genre too. Whereas his five pre-war concertos were for piano or string instruments,
the two post-war concertos were written for wind instruments. As the indication “Concerto, or Rhapsody” on the cover of the
autograph score suggests, it takes a free form that departs from sonata form.
Mikiko Ikushima
(English Translation: Nahoko Gotoh)