Saxophone Concerto in E-flat major, op. 109

The Saxophone Concerto was written in 1934, in Glazunov's last years in Paris, at the request of the German saxophonist Sigurd Rascher, who had set out to build a classical repertoire for an instrument then confined to bands and to jazz. Rascher gave the premiere in Nykoping, in Sweden, that November. It is a single movement of about fourteen minutes for saxophone and string orchestra, with a written-out cadenza and a fugal section before the close. It was the first work by a composer of Glazunov's standing to enter the saxophone repertoire.