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Off-topic: Marcello Oboe Concerto

Author: kdk
Date: 2009-03-07 14:53

I've posted this on the oboe bboard, but I know there are a number of people who contribute here who are very knowledgeable about music beyond the area of clarinet. I'm writing program notes for a local youth orchestra. The program includes the Marcello Oboe Concerto. Two questions:

1. The score attributes the concerto to Benedetto Marcello. As I've begun to research it on the web, I'm finding that it has been more recently attributed to his brother Alessandro instead. When did this change become generally accepted and is there any documentation I can access (preferably online) that would give more background?

2. I've seen the concerto written and referred to in both C minor and D minor. I know Bach adapted it for clavier (BWV 974?) and used D minor. Is the original oboe key C minor (which is the key of the score I was given on which to base the notes)?

Thanks for any insight.

Karl

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Re: Off-topic: Marcello Oboe Concerto

Author: GBK
Date: 2009-03-07 15:13

Karl, one of my recordings states that the work was printed in about 1717 in Amsterdam as one of a series of concertos by a variety of composers and:

"...almost unique among his published works in that it appeared in print under his real name instead of a pseudonym, and has given rise to the theory that he did not authorize the work's publication..."

Did you read the notes of the Oboe Concerto here?

http://library.shu.edu/concerts/concert-2000-02-29.pdf

...GBK

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Re: Off-topic: Marcello Oboe Concerto

Author: kdk
Date: 2009-03-07 18:25

Thanks for the link. Those notes are a little ambiguous, particularly about the key. It's interesting, though, that in that performance they apparently used a D minor version. As I say, the one I've been given, which is a Xerox of the score I assume the conductor has, is in C minor. Also, when I asked about it at a rehearsal last night, both oboists and a violinist who seemed familiar with the question said emphatically that it was originally in C minor. Also, contra the note in the New Jersey Chamber Orchestra program, I've seen the music and listened to a couple of recorded excerpts of the Bach adaptation, and it's in D minor, not C minor. So I don't know if the note writer for the concert was sloppy or if there are not only 2 versions of the oboe concerto, but also 2 of the Bach harpsichord version.

<shrug>

Karl

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Re: Off-topic: Marcello Oboe Concerto

Author: kdk
Date: 2009-03-07 20:40

For anyone who may have been interested, here's a link I came up with:

http://www.idrs.org/publications/journal2/jnl10/marc.html

Karl

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