Appealing Junction of Master Oboists & Composers
rodboomboom | Dearborn, Michigan United States | 12/13/2006
(5 out of 5 stars)
"This two CD set brings together eleven great composers: Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, Marcello, Vaughan Williams, Ravel, Schumann, Britten, Poulenc and Stravinsky with their compositions for oboe. These are played by eight oboists: Black, Gomberg, Holliger, Koch, Mack, Nicklin, Schellenberger and Still. This is all world oboe team from Europe as well as states.
For many like me you will find both some familiar pieces and performers and some new ones to discover and delight in as well. New in this set for this reviewer was Strauss' Concerto in D Major for Oboe and Small Orchestra, played here wonderfully by Lothar Koch backed by Berliner Philharmonic. The Andante and Vivace were moving pieces! However, my favorite track which is also new is the Finale/Presto to Beethoven's Trio in C Major for 2 Oboes and English Horn.
This collection also allowed me to be acquainted with an oboist previously not known to me, Celia Nicklin. She performs Vaughan Williams Concerto for Oboe and Strings, ably backed by Academy of St. Martin in the Fields with Sir Neville. This pastoral work is dreamy and flowing, and Nicklin's playing enhances this with clarity and clear tonal sound.
Black's stylistic playing is very evident and carrys the day on Mozart's Quartet in F Major for Oboe and Strings, especially his fine delivery on the Rondeau.
Such a nice collection of composers and oboists that should be purchased, given and listened to with joy."
An album that belongs to every oboist's library
Wai Kit Leung | CA USA | 08/15/2009
(5 out of 5 stars)
"This is THE oboe album I had been waiting for ages - a compilation of some of the most popular/representative oboe works, played by real masters on the instrument. There are limitations of course, because only artists on the roster of Universal Classics (DG, Philips and Decca) can be represented here. So we are missing the great Pierre Pierlot, who is represented on The Magic Of the Oboe, as well as the younger batch of oboists, who seem to have difficulty getting recording contracts with a big recording company. Douglas Boyd, who recorded quite a few solo albums for DG before he hung up his oboe for the baton in 2002, is another notable absentee here.
All the oboists featured here play on the modern instrument (i.e. no baroque oboe featured here). The youngest of the soloists featured here was born in 1948, and three of them are no longer with us.
The items played by Schellenberger, to my knowledge, are making their debut on CD. They are drawn from his debut album (on LP) for DG, one or two years after his Munich success, and about 7 years before he was installed as the principal oboe of the Berlin Philharmonic. His predecessor and one-time colleague Lothar Koch is presented here in the classic acount of the Strauss concerto. Holliger's Marcello recording is his last, on Philips from 1987. His tone here is less reedy than and not as thin as his usual standard.
Not credited on the back cover are Hans Elhorst and Maurice Bourgue, who play second oboe and English horn respectively in the Beethoven Trio. Overall, oboists from both sides of the Atlantic are both represented. That seems to have been a conscious decision by Universal, since American oboists are much less represented on their catalog to start with.
Another oboe album, with shorter, more popular (less classical?) works that I also recommend, is Diana Doherty's Souvenirs. On that album you can find pieces like Piazzolla Oblivion and Morricone's Gabirel's Oboe, as well as slow movements from concertos by Marcello, Albinoni and Vivaldi, among other pieces of "romantic" music, played by one of today's top oboists.
I strongly recommend this 2-CD set to oboists or anyone who loves the oboe. The Schellenberger selections (Bach G minor, Schumann Romances, Britten Six Metamorphoses, Poulenc Sonata) aren't available elsewhere, and the album is worth getting just for those."
Track Listings (12) - Disc #1