Decent Mix of "old style" vs. "new style" albinoni
John K. Gayley | Physically in Wilmette, IL; Mentally in Siena, Ita | 04/11/2003
(4 out of 5 stars)
"Well, you can't beat the price of this. If you like Albinoni, and you like oboe, you'll like this. I will say, however, it takes 1/3 of the disc to really hit its stride. The first few numbers definitely reflect an older, clunkier (circa 1960s) style of playing baroque music; this clunkiness tends to underscore Albinoni's concervatism relative to someone like Vivaldi (try Vivaldi by Europa Galante if you want to hear "state of the art" Italian baroque playing).Farther into this disc, however, the selections get more snappier and lively, and it becomes very pleasant indeed.One final cavil: I wish the music marketing world would STOP putting that darn adagio in g on every Albinoni disc! Who needs 7 copies of it? Its like that unwanted relative that shows up at every family function. Basta! I would rather have had another oboe concerto instead."