Debussy's was the first of these six works (1911). I first heard it played in the late 1930s by Sigurd Rascher—for whom the Glazunov (1934) and Ibert (1935) concertos were written—a piece with a chequered history, first orchestrated by Roger Ducasse and here updated by Harle himself. Villa-Lobos, whose concerto was assigned to soprano or tenor saxophone (Harle chooses the former), was an enthusiastic user of the instrument—though his concerto (1948) is uncharacteristically restrained. There is little in Bennett's very accessible concerto to suggest a jazz connection, but Heath formalizes one in an easily recognizable post-Miles vein. Harle is the Compleat Virtuoso in every department (he surmounts the high harmonics in the cadenza of the last movement of the Glazunov with the surefootedness of a mountain goat) and as eloquent an advocate for the 'serious saxophone' as could be imagined; the ever-reliable ASMF give him all the support he (and we) might wish. Berlioz would have been amazed by this splendid recording, as you may too.

-- John Duarte, Gramophone [1/1992]