Search - Jan Krtitel Vanhal, Jukka-Pekka Saraste, The Umeå Sinfonietta :: Vanhal: Concerto for 2 Bassoons & Orchestra

Lo, the festive bassoons!

Harry W. Crosby | La Jolla, California United States | 02/28/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Had Mozart written a concerto for bassoon (or bassoons), he could scarce have improved on this wonderful piece by Jan Vanhal, his friend and occasional co-performer. And Vanhal could not have asked for a more fluent and skilled performance than that provided here by a crack group of Finns. For those who have found this instrument clumsy or lugubrious, more humorous than musical, here is a lively, graceful, tuneful rebuttal, a piece that will call out to you every time you scan your shelf of disks. Besides, who else ever wrote a concerto for two, count them, two bassoons?"

Two bassoons!

Jill Malter | jillmalter@aol.com | 08/25/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Yes, this disc includes a rarity: a concerto for two bassoons! The bassoonists, Annika Wallin and Arne Nilsson, do a great job. So does the orchestra, the Umea Sinfonietta, from northern Sweden.



Jan Vanhal's beautiful two-bassoon concerto is the key work on this disc. And for those who don't know who Vanhal was, well, he wrote plenty of music. In 1777, Mozart played the solo part in a concert performance of a Vanhal violin concerto. In 1784, Haydn, von Dittersdorf, Mozart, and Vanhal played some string quartets together at the home of composer Stephen Sorace (Haydn on first violin, Dittersdorf on second violin, and Vanhal on cello). Vanhal wrote plenty of symphonies, concertos, string quartets, religious music, and programmatic music. But I think the two-bassoon concerto may be the best introduction to his works.



I recommend this recording."