In 2012 I had the privilege to receive about 70 newspaper clippings of Sigurd Raschèr’s concerts in Holland. At that time I was authoring my book on the history of the classical saxophone in the Netherlands. Further research at the Dutch Royal Library revealed many more articles in Dutch about the activities of this unique saxophone pioneer in my country. I was very impressed to learn about the many concerts with different orchestras Mr. Raschèr performed here, first alone, later accompanied by his daughter Carina. Definitely unique were also the school concert tours he undertook, often performing up to three recitals a day for different youthful audiences!
And so from fall 2012 to spring 2013 I translated a total of 119 Dutch reviews to English because I thought it important that they become available for future studies (send me a note if you wish to study these). They disclosed a wealth of information for my book.
Some of the reviews I translated indicated a concert that Mr. Raschèr performed live for television. Quite the event, especially in those days! Further studies made it clear that the mentioned concert was a performance of Larsson’s Saxophone Concerto with the Amsterdams Kamerorkest in the early sixties. Aided by my friends at the Dutch broadcasting agencies we were able to discover the original tapes of this performance and digitalize them! A true gem, of which I would like to share a snippet here in Mr. Raschèr’s honour. I am currently looking into the copyright issues involved in sharing the complete performance.
