Music At The Universit Dahl's Paxophone Concert

From a young age Dahl’s musical ability was obvious. He studied piano with Edith Weismann early on and at the age of 18 began his formal studies with Philipp Jarnach at the Cologne Hochschule fur Musik. In 1933 at the age of twenty-one Dahl fled to Switzerland in order to escape Nazi Germany and continued his musical studies at the University of Zürich with Volkmar Andreae and Walter Frey. During his time in Zürich, Dahl was an in demand piano soloist and opera coach for the Zürich Stadttheater. It is here that Dahl met Etta Gordon Linick, and the two later married. In 1939, Dahl immigrated to the United States and moved to Los Angeles. This was a special time to be in southern California because not only was Hollywood and the film industry on the rise, many great European composers also lived in the area including Stravinsky, Schoenberg, Milhaud, and Boulanger. Dahl was able to make a living working for the film industry while also playing and teaching, but more importantly Dahl was able to discuss composition with other great composers. By 1943 Dahl was an American citizen and in 1945 he was on faculty at the
The concerto was premiered in 1949 by Rascher and the University of Illinois Concert Band to a great reception. Henry Cowell told Dahl that it was “one of the most important and well-written band pieces that he had ever heard. It was even said to have brought Stravinsky to tears. However soon after its performance Dahl thought that Rascher was the only saxophonist in the world that was capable enough to play the concerto which led to the first set of revision in 1954. The third movement was substantially rewritten in order to provide alternative passages for the saxophonist. Another set of revisions were made in 1959 which removed several section and shortened the piece to about three quarters its original