Never before has the saxophone been heard in quite this way on a new recording: Carlos Gimenez explores the vocal dimension of his instrument with impressive effect. Gimenez allows the instrument, often ridiculed as crude, to breathe, sigh, sing, and speak. This results in completely new "songs without words" from Rachmaninoff to Mompou and Wagner, sensitively accompanied by José Alberto del Cerro on the concert grand piano.

The centerpiece and highlight of this highly varied recording: "Prelude and Liebestod" from Wagner's "Tristan und Isolde"—a genuinely spine-tingling moment of emotion! It's remarkable how Gimenez manages to convey the intensity of endless, unfulfilled longing, even without words.

Catalan songs by Xavier Montsalvatge, Fernando Obrador, and Federico Mompou provide expressive contrast, sometimes Caribbean, sometimes Spanish, sometimes entirely introspective; with Sergei Rachmaninoff's Six Romances, one can also experience an intimate side of the celebrated Russian piano virtuoso.

Perhaps the most surprising thing about this unusual album in every respect is the understated naturalness with which everything unfolds. Gimenez and del Cerro find precisely the right tone and manage to bring unexpected colors even to familiar pieces. All of this has been captured in the finest Super Audio CD technology for a listening experience that is as surprising as it is delightful.