Author: ohsuzan
Date: 2007-01-09 16:48
Hey, glad you agree with my characterization of Robinson's sound as "creamy"! And Douvas is, as I hear it, even more in that direction. (I really like her sound, BTW).
As regards Still vs. ??, we may be tumbling into that morass of defining what a "dark" sound means. Still was one of the first oboists to whom I consciously listened -- at the suggestion of my first teacher, who had ample opportunity to hear him up close while she was a bassoon student at Northwestern. She spoke of the fullness, richness, and (dare I say) "darkness" of his sound. There is an edge to his sound (i.e., it is NOT "creamy"), but it is not like, say, Holliger, who I think of as the quintessence of light and bright. There is a heaviness to Still, or perhaps a broadness. And in light of where oboe sound has gone in the past, say, 50 years, it does seem to me to bespeak an earlier era.
I've only got two Still CDs (are there more?). I've just listened to the first track of "Ray Still, A Chicago Legend" (2001 Nimbus Records), which was Bach Sonata in G minor. Now I am listening to the Strauss on "Oboe Concertos (Strauss, Bach, Marcello)" (1989 Virgin Classics Limited). The Bach sounds heavier to me, the Strauss lighter.
Of Still, Robinson, and Mack, the one that I have trouble getting an auditory handle on is Mack. Guess I need to listen more.
S.
P.S. I love what I have heard of Lucarelli. Glorious. I also like Nick Daniel and Gordon Hunt. Do you see any pattern there?
|
|
Keepers
