If you ask oboists about the golden age of their instrument, they will in all likelihood refer to the first half of the 18th century. It was the time when a plethora of music for the oboe was written - solo and trio sonatas, concertos, cantatas... No court orchestra could make do without the instrument. Many of these pieces were created by the three most feted late-Baroque composers: Antonio Vivaldi (he conceived about two dozen concertos for solo oboe!), J. S. Bach, and his friend G. P. Telemann, who is deemed one of the most prolific composers of all time. Although dating from the same period, the works by the three creators represent three very different worlds. Yet that which they have in common is their virtuosity and the associated high technical demands placed upon the soloist. Besides Ensemble 18+ and his musical soul-mate, the harpsichordist Barbara Maria Willi, Vilém Veverka invited along as a guest to participate in this dream project his teacher and colleague Dominik Wollenweber, oboist of the Berliner Philharmoniker. With this new album, Veverka has confirmed his firm position among the most acclaimed oboists on the international scale. "Vilém Veverka breathes new life into concertos by three Baroque masters."
More than 200 years after it's premiere at the Gewandhaus in Leipzig, Isabelle Faust, Jean-Guihen Queyras and Martin Helmchen have congenially mastered the artistic challenge of Beethoven's gemstone. Under Herbert Blomstedt's sensitive direction, the soloists unite chamber musical intimacy together with virtuoso sophistication - and prove once again that the Triple Concerto is an unduly underestimated, much too rarely programmed masterpiece. With the composer's 5th Symphony, Blomstedt succeeds in achieving an entirely new perspective of this work. In his Sixth Symphony, the "Pastoral", Ludwig van Beethoven conveys his musical message in such a way that let's the listener literally "see" images of beautiful nature, tempestuous storms, and shepherds singing in the fields, whereas in his Seventh Symphony, Beethoven let's the music speak for itself. The performances of these works by the Gewandhausorchester give the uplifting feeling that the intentions of both composer and performers are united in serving the musical message. The humanist and musician Herbert Blomstedt embodies this truth in a unique way, creating an atmosphere where the wonders of music all become true. Ludwig van Beethoven's 9th Symphony and the musical city of Leipzig are closely intertwined with each other: Felix Mendelssohn, Kapellmeister of the Gewandhausorchester, made the work an indispensable part of the concert hall repertoire and Arthur Nikisch, one of his successors, established in 1918 the worldwide tradition of performing this groundbreaking and pioneering work at the end of the year. Herbert Blomstedt once again conducted Beethoven's Ninth in Leipzig for the 2016 New Year celebrations. With his former orchestra, of which he has been Conductor Laureate since 2005 and with whom he enjoys a close friendship, he achieves a gripping interpretation of this monumental work.
Nickel: Concertos for Oboe / Lynch, Linsey, Sabee, Northwest Sinfonia
Avie Records
CD
$19.99Sep 18, 2020
Christopher Tyler Nickel’s contemporary classical compositions pack a bracing and emotional punch. His award-winning works for the concert hall, stage and screen have been heard in over 160 countries by audiences in the tens of thousands. His experience as an oboist instills a confidence to compose with an exhilarating freedom to explore the vast expressive range of the instrument, from lyrical and plaintive to acerbic and brittle. The world-premiere recordings of these three concertos for oboe and its lower-pitched siblings the oboe d’amore and bass oboe receive dazzling performances by Mary Lynch, principal oboe of the Seattle Symphony, and Harrison Linsey, oboist with the Washington D.C.-based National Symphony Orchestra. Grammy Award-winning David Sabee, a tireless advocate of contemporary classical music, conducts the Seattle-based Northwest Sinfonia.
Bernardini meets Dreyer: a distinguished period-instrument oboist explores the music of a little-known Florentine forebear. Domenico Dreyer was born in Florence in 1701 to an Italian mother and German father, at a time when Italy was experiencing a golden age for the oboe, led by technical innovations in the design of the instrument. The family was musical, but why he picked up the oboe is unknown, as is most of his early life. At any rate, these sonatas are preserved in manuscript form under his name - his only surviving music - and may have been published in 1727. What we do know is that Dreyer travelled with his brother, a singer and impresario, across Europe and as far as St Petersburg. In the early 1730s Dreyer was playing in Venice, where he most likely met Vivaldi, and a musical link between the two men is illustrated by these six appealing sonatas. At any rate, Bernadini is drawn to these sonatas, as he explains in a booklet introduction, 'because they combine ornamented and very expressive slow movements with fast movements of great virtuosity, using the possibilities of the two-key oboe to the extreme.' Bernadini draws out various thematic correspondences between particular movements of the sonatas and various parts of Vivaldi's output, while observing a more general Vivaldian flavour to the writing. We might know more but for Dreyer's sudden and unexplained death at the age of 34, 'due to an unfortunate event,' according to the best historical record available. The sonatas may be enjoyed on their own terms, however, as stylish examples of Italian Baroque chamber writing at it's zenith. They are performed here by Bernadini on a copy of a 1730 instrument by Giovanni Maria Anciuti (1674-1744), the most important Italian wind instrument maker of the time. Not only is this the closest available instrument to Dreyer's sonatas in terms of place and date, but it is also one of the few 18th-century oboes to feature the low C sharp, which Dreyer notates at the end of the Fourth Sonata. He is joined by a quartet of fellow Italian period- instrument specialists, who supply a richly varied continuo section. - Domenico Maria Dreyer (ca. 1680 - ca. 1740) was the son of the German tenor Johann Conrad Dreyer, born and raised in Florence. His life was closely linked to that of his younger brother Giovanni Filippo Dreyer, a castrato, impresario and opera composer. The brothers worked for a long time at the courts of Moscow and St. Petersburg and later in Italy. - Six oboe sonatas and two recorder sonatas have survived from his oeuvre. The oboe sonatas are of great musical beauty and stylistically belong to the Venetian High Baroque period of his contemporary Antonio Vivaldi. It is assumed that they were composed around 1725. - Each sonata typically follows a four-movement structure, alternating between slow, lyrical passages and lively, dance-like sections. This format allows for a rich exploration of the oboe's tonal capabilities, from it's warm, mellow low registers to it's bright, penetrating highs. Dreyer's sonatas often feature elaborate ornamentation and intricate melodic lines, demanding both technical proficiency and expressive nuance from the performer. - Played by the famous Italian oboist Alfredo Bernardini (founder of the Zefiro Ensemble) and a continuo group consisting of cello, archlute and harpsichord/organ.
Oboe Concertos Of The Classical Era / Klein, Freeman
Cedille
CD
$19.99Jan 01, 1999
"František Vincenc Kramá?, as he is correctly named, is better known as Franz Vinzenz Krommer. Born in Bohemia in 1759, he was educated, in part, by an uncle, but taught himself theory. He left Bohemia in 1785 and worked extensively in Hungary for the better part of 10 years. From 1795 until his death in 1831 he worked in Vienna. His reputation was very high, and his works were quite widely known throughout Europe. His quartets were considered on a par with Haydn's, and overall he was often compared to Beethoven. From our point of view those statements may be excessive, but he certainly was a polished musician deserving considerable renown. His wind concertos are especially fine, and are gradually becoming well regarded in our own time.
His two oboe concertos were written in Vienna in 1803 and 1805. Both are dramatic works with virtuoso turns and leaps abounding. The first is more Mozartean in nature while the second has distinct overtones of early Beethoven. Both are first-class pieces that deserve to be known.
Johann Nepomuk Hummel is more of a known quantity. He was highly regarded in Vienna as a contemporary of Beethoven, though of somewhat lesser stature. His Introduction, Theme, and Variations is a polished, virtuoso piece of considerable brilliance.
Alex Klein was born in Brazil, trained at Oberlin College, and for the last five years has been principal oboist of the Chicago Symphony. His technique is flawless. He is well supported by Paul Freeman and the Czech National Symphony. Cedille's recorded sound is first-class, as expected from this source."-- John Bauman, Fanfare [11/1999]
Concertos For Oboe, Clarinet And Orchestra / Eleanor Weingartner, Miguel Salazar
Urtext
CD
$16.99Jan 15, 2021
This release features a program of classical works for a unique instrumentation- oboe, clarinet, and orchestra. The first piece, Double Concerto for Oboe, Clarinet, and Orchestra by Eduardo Alonso-Crespo, sets both soloists as equals. The following works- Rosetti’s Concerto No. 3 in C Major for Oboe and his Concerto in Eb Major for Clarinet, brilliantly showcase each artist individually. Eleanor Weingartner, an American clarinetist living in Mexico has been principal clarinet of Mexico’s National Symphony Orchestra (OSN) since 1990. With the OSN she has played in concert halls throughout Mexico as well as in important venues in Europe and the United States and has participated in many OSN recordings for Sony, among other labels. Miguel Salazar studied music at the University of Guadalajara and later at Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh. He has previously held positions with the Guadalajara Symphony Orchestra and the National Symphony Orchestra, and is currently principal oboe of the Queretaro Philharmonic Orchestra.
Despite his advanced age and the chaos surrounding him, Richard Strauss remained highly productive well into the 1940's. As the Second World War was coming to an end in 1944-45, the eighty-year-old composer was working on his Oboe Concerto and Sonatina No. 2 for winds, as well as the Metamorphosen for strings. While the latter work was an explicit response to the destruction Strauss was witnessing, in the Concerto and the Sonatina the composer seemed to be turning his mind away from the events surrounding him. There is a pastoral quality to the oboe concerto, with a highly tuneful solo part and more than occasional touches of nostalgia for the 18th century. Similarly, Strauss headed the score of the sonatina with a dedication ''to the spirit of the immortal Mozart at the end of a life full of thankfulness''. To an extent, one might say that Strauss at the end of his life returned to the musical models of his youth. It is therefore fitting that these two works frame the Serenade in E flat major for wind ensemble, composed more than sixty years earlier in the tradition of entertainment music by Schubert and Mendelssohn. Alexei Ogrintchouk, one of today's leading oboists, has proven himself in previous recordings for BIS ranging from Bach to Nikos Skalkottas and Antal Dorati. With sterling support from the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra conducted by Andris Nelsons, he here makes light of the considerable difficulties of the solo part of the oboe concerto, and also directs his colleagues from the orchestra's wind section in the works for wind ensemble.
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REVIEW:
Late Strauss has a sound very different from the sumptuous, huge-orchestra one of earlier Strauss, and the 1945 Concerto for Oboe and Small Orchestra, one of the composer’s final works, shows this quite clearly. The live recording of the concerto for BIS by Alexei Ogrintchouk is a very fine, well-played one, and the conducting by Andris Nelsons is sensitive and nicely paced.
Ogrintchouk is both oboist and conductor in the other works on the SACD, which are studio recordings. The short, charming, lively and quite self-assured Serenade for 13 Wind Instruments is from the opposite, earliest part of Strauss’ career, dating to 1881.
The final work on this disc is much more substantial — longer than the other two put together. The label Sonatina therefore seems something of a misnomer. It features very skillful wind writing — a Strauss characteristic that does not always get adequate attention — and an overall warm and mellow sound somewhat reminiscent of that of Brahms. Strauss was something of a natural in wind writing, as the excellent playing on this recording makes abundantly clear.
