Search - Christopher Hogwood, Claude Wassmer, Wouter Möller :: Han de Vries ~ Telemann - Oboe Sonatas · Handel - Trio Sonatas

Historic German Oboe, somewhat hybrid disk

Leslie Richford | Selsingen, Lower Saxony | 02/17/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This disk is something of a ?hybrid?, not in the newest sense of the word (two formats), but because it contains the record of two totally different sessions five years apart (1979 and 1984), from two different countries (the Netherlands and Germany) and with music by two (or perhaps four) different composers (of the three Handel sonatas on this recording, two are probably spurious). The only unifying factor is, in fact, Han de Vries with his lovely oboe by Gottlieb Crone (Leipzig, around 1735) and his marvellous phrasing - although even he is, on the second half of the disk, only to be heard in various duets with other instruments and no longer as the ?soloist?.



All that does not preclude, of course, some wonderful music. In particular, the Telemann pieces are well-worth listening to over and over again; they prove quite conclusively that this composer belongs in the top category of baroque musicians, his inventiveness and sense of grace in his melodies being unrivalled. The historic oboe causes quite a lot of mechanical noise, which, in particular if you are listening via headphones, can be somewhat disturbing. The (pseudo-)Handel is somewhat less satisfying, despite having the likes of a Christopher Hogwood playing the Basso continuo; I found the recorded sound, although good, did not quite match up to the first half of the disk. (There was some untoward background noise, too.)

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