Author: gabriel'soboe
Date: 2005-11-29 18:30
Howard, you shouldn't feel "miserable" because you own a treasure that's much more important than the mere possession of those recordings: you can play the oboe.
Regarding the contemporary repertoire, I must say I'm not an expert. I have a few items such as a CD by the oboist Steinar Hannevold gathering the oboe concertos of Corigliano, Kverndokk and Denisov. Be prepared in case where you would purchase that one (available on the Pro Musica label): it consists mostly of rather difficult stuff. The same goes for another Scandinavian CD played by Helen Jahren, "Oboe con forza"(Phono Suecia label): it features modern oboe concertos and pieces by obscure Swedish composers.
Those are only examples of contemporary stuff. I also think of Alan Rawsthorne's concerto published by Naxos (Stéphane Rancourt, soloist) or of Dominic Muldowney's concerto released as a CD single on the NMC label. And if we get back a bit earlier, there exists a host of other English works such as Gordon Jacob's ones, Vaughan-Williams concerto in a minor, William Boughton's concerto, etc.
Another work from the first part of the XXth century I appreciate highly is Arthur Honegger's Concerto da camera for flute, cor anglais and string orchestra. It's an homage to Bach and the English horn is here supposed to replace Bach's oboe da caccia. There exists several versions of that work, for instance one by Holliger (pieces by Frank Martin and Bohuslav Martinu's famous concerto complement it), or by François Leleux on a CD dedicated to Shostacovith and Honegger (but no further oboe or English horn pieces on that one).
Little by little, more and more pieces from the oboe repertoire make their appearance on CD.
I shall conclude this posting with a French item: François Rauber's Concertino for oboe as performed by Jacques Tys on the Harmonia Mundi label. It's a short but fairly pleasant piece in 4 movements.
Thanks for reading and sorry for my French-like English !
Laurent
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