L'Age d'Or - Alto Sax and Piano

Jacques Ibert (1890-1962), a graduate of the Paris Conservatoire, was director of the French Academy in Rome from 1937 to 1960.  During World War I, Ibert was an officer in the French navy.  His experiences traveling the Mediterranean as a naval officer were reflected in one of his best-known orchestral works, Escales (Ports of Call).  Ibert was generally "modern" but non-doctrinaire in his approach to composition. 

Le Chevalier Errant was a ballet score for orchestra, completed in 1936, from which Ibert extracted a four-movement suite.  ":L'Age d'Or" was the third movement of this suite, which included solo saxophone in the instrumentation.  The version for saxophone and piano dates from 1956.