Search - Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, Alessandro Marcello, Ferenc Erkel Chamber Orchestra :: C.P.E. Bach: Oboe Concertos, Oboe Sonata; A. Marcello: Oboe Concerto

Good Music, Boring Performance

Wormwood Scrubs | Los Angeles | 01/16/2000

(3 out of 5 stars)

"The Marcello is an excellent piece, especially the adagio (music to open your veins by). Unfortunately, the oboe performance is limp, listless and mechanical. That Kiss can play such an expressive instrument without dynamics and feeling is remarkable. The recording also features plenty of distracting clicks & clacks from the instrument. Spend a few extra bucks and get a Holliger recording if you can find one.



In light of other reviews I gave this album another careful listen. I stand by my original assessment: the music is excellent, but Kiss is a mechanic, not an artist. "Kiss keeps his sound even all the way [through] the performance." Uh huh. That's exactly the problem. Kiss, it seems, has never heard of crescendo, diminuendo, expressivo, and seldom takes advantage of the instrument's emotive potential. Is some kind of weird music ideology at work here? "There's not a bit of reediness in it, just a pure, expressive, beautiful oboe sound." What? The oboe is a reed instrument--there better be some "reediness." That's what makes the "expressive, beautiful oboe sound" so great.



And yet ... this album is worth buying if you cannot find other performances of the Marcello and the C.P.E. Bach solo sonato. Both adagios and the first allegro of the Bach are superb compositions, and I haven't been able to find a recording of the Bach piece anywhere else. So, now that Amazon allows changes to the star rating, and based on the music selections and unavailability of alternate recordings, I have upgraded my review to three stars."

Jozsef Kiss is wonderful!

Scott W. Bronner | 01/05/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I think that Jozsef Kiss performs in a wondeful way. His soft, beautiful, melliflous sound catches the best, unusual sound of all. The music on this recording is very well chosen and naxos produce absolute quality on every CD. I am an oboe player myself, and the Marcello is so good, that I like to play along with it! The Sonata in A minor for Oboe solo, is well projected with excellent dynamics. Kiss keeps his sound even all the way the performance, and does not lack in sound in the top register and always uses notes in full length. His amazing breath control makes this an even better recording. I totally disagree with the previous review!"