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Oboe, page 4

   Found CDs: 55
 

Antaras - Music for Oboe by Edwin Roxburgh

Antaras - Music for Oboe by Edwin Roxburgh
ID: CC2019
CDs: 1
Type: CD
Subcollection: Piano

The 24-page full colour CD booklet has a 6,000 word programme note in English
with full details of each track, and extensive information about the composer and about his use of multiphonics.
There are biographies of all the players and many photographs.

Introduction by Jeremy Polmear:

This CD is a collection of music by a single composer, mostly for a single combination of instruments (oboe and piano), yet the sheer variety of the music is immediately apparent. Most obviously perhaps, is the the use of multiphonics on the oboe, which are central to Shadow Play, are used extensively in most of the other pieces, but not at all in Aulodie or Cantilena. The harmonic and rhythmic complexity of the pieces also varies - from the virtuosic Antares to the touching simplicity of Cantilena. Furthermore, these pieces cover a period of nearly 40 years, yet there is no obvious trend of an evolving style during this period. What kind of composer is Edwin Roxburgh, really? What labels can we apply?

Roxburgh himself hates labels. For example, he says "I was never a serial composer. Serial composition is in any case just one way of expressing something; to add a label to it isn't really the point. And the 'neo-' label - why spend the time regenerating characteristics of the past? By all means borrow from the past, and also from the musical clichés which surround us in the present - embrace these things, but transform them into something of your own. As a composer, you need to add your own brick to the wall of the evolution of music."

A composer's creative process is notoriously hard to define, but Roxburgh puts it thus: "I start with the idea for a piece, and then I look for the vocabulary with which to express that idea. It's different for every composition; I'm looking at modes of harmony, of rhythm, of modulation that are going to be able to express that idea. And at physics, too; the physics of the oboe, and its chords, these can be part of the vocabulary, an exciting area to explore."

It is this willingness to define his artistic vocabulary afresh for the needs of each composition that gives authenticity to Edwin Roxburgh’s music, and perhaps explains the remark made by his teacher Nadia Boulanger that Edwin was 'the new Stravinsky'. It is also interesting to note that Roxburgh describes Schoenberg and Fauré as two of his musical 'grandparents'. Boulanger was a pupil of Fauré and another teacher was Luigi Dallapiccola, a pupil of Schoenberg.

We can also see evidence in this CD of the source of some of Edwin Roxburgh's ideas. People feature prominently, especially oboists. Elegy was written in memory of Janet Craxton (who can be heard on Oboe Classics CC2011). Its use of multiphonics would perhaps not have enthused its dedicatee ("I'm not Holliger", she told one composer); yet the quiet, warm, unselfish spirit of Janet the player and Janet the person pervades the piece.

Léon Goossens (available on Oboe Classics CC2005) is a source for two pieces here: Antares, written for Nicholas Daniel to play for his 90th birthday. And Aulodie, which was written ten years earlier for Goossens himself to perform. In this latter piece, the composer pays tribute to a player in an extraordinary way. Not only is the musical vocabulary one with which Goossens would have been familiar, but Roxburgh even includes the kinds of phrases and moods at which Goossens excelled.

External events are another impulse for Roxburgh. As he says, "sometimes I'm touched by an event. Composers can't affect politicians, but we can make a point for history. It can be a simple expression, as long as it's profound." Listening to the two tracks which comment on war, Cantilena and Silent Strings, we can hear much more than simple anger; perhaps this is because in each of these pieces Edwin Roxburgh has combined his aversion for an act with his respect for particular individuals - the composer Adrian Cruft; and the performers Paul Goodey and Sally Mays.
21.00 eur Temporarily out of stock

Melodic Lines - Oboe, Bassoon & Piano

Melodic Lines - Oboe, Bassoon & Piano
ID: CC2016
CDs: 1
Type: CD
Subcollection: Piano

The 24-page CD booklet has a 6,000 word programme note in English including interviews with Roderick Swanston (on Geoffrey Bush), Barbara Thompson (on Green), Roger Lord (on Madeleine Dring) and Richard Stoker (on his Miniatures). There are biographies of the composers and many photographs.


Has melody always been with us? Will it continue to flourish? Yes, and yes. The practise of creating pitched sounds is a universal human phenomenon, and the pentatonic scale has been found in many cultures all over the world. In the West it was present in some of the earliest examples of notated music, such as Gregorian Chant, and is with us today.

The melodies in Lalliet’s Terzetto, for example, are not universal - they are clearly a product of European culture in the 19th Century. But whatever form it takes, the existence of melody itself is universal. It seems likely that melody was linked to communication long before opera was invented; the pre-verbal vocalising of a baby could be said to be a kind of melody, and right from the start comes the idea that melody not just an abstract thing that we happen to like, but that it is linked with an emotional or physical state, and with the communication of that state. Melody is very fundamental to us, relating to our physiology, not just to our sense of beauty.

The history of melody has had, as it were, its ups and downs. In the classical period, a long melodic line was not considered flexible enough for symphonic development - all you could do was repeat it or make variations of it - and it was often replaced by a short motif that could be worked on. However, by the 19th Century, when the earliest piece on this CD was written (the Lalliet), melody was in its hayday. The scientist Hermann Helmholtz asserted that it was 'the incarnation of motion in music', the critic Eduard Hanslick saw in it 'the archetypal configuration of beauty', and Wagner asserted that there was no reason that a melody need ever end. In practice even Wagner ended his melodies eventually, but this was felt to be a choice and not a necessity. Surprisingly, the best example of an ‘unending’ melody on this CD comes from Wagner’s antithesis, Francis Poulenc, in the slow movement of his Trio.

In the 20th Century, melody suffered an eclipse from the followers of the Second Viennese School. This wasn't their original intention; Webern, for example, said he was looking for 'absolute melody', but this was at the expense of something you could hum, and advances in instrumental techniques, synthesisers and computers encouraged later composers to pursue ends other than melodic ones.

Meanwhile other developments, such as the incorporation of folk music, or the 'Socialist Realism' of composers such as Shostakovitch, as well as the rise of popular music as a separate genre, ensured the survival of melody. On this CD the operatic melodies of Casimir-Théophile Lalliet (circa 1870), the Romantic urges of Francis Poulenc (1928), the heartfelt melancholy of Geoffrey Bush (1952), the chirpy tunes of Richard Stoker (1963), the mediaeval references of Madeleine Dring (1971), and the sinuous lines of Barbara Thompson (2006), demonstrate that melody is alive and well.

It may also be that it is in the nature of the oboe and bassoon to play tunes, to connect to the human voice, and this has encouraged these composers to be more 'melodic' when writing for these instruments. Today's advanced instrumental techniques enable both oboe and bassoon players to make music of extraordinary complexity, but I can't help feeling that when our remote ancestors first punched finger holes in a wooden tube, it was a melody they had in mind.
© 2006 Jeremy Polmear
21.00 eur Temporarily out of stock

Oboe: Berio & Beyond

Oboe: Berio & Beyond
ID: CC2015
CDs: 1
Type: CD
Subcollection: Oboe

The 24-page CD booklet has a 6,000 word programme note in English, with a description of the works, the performers, and many photographs.


Oboe+' brings together a group of works for oboe that, with the exception of Berio’s Sequenza VII, have not been recorded before. Sequenza VII was written at the end of the 1960s, a time that had seen a great deal of experimentation with composers exploring the wide range of new sounds available. The Sequenza is an exceptional work that brings together many of the sounds and techniques of the period and integrates them into a work of extraordinary beauty and power. Alongside the development of new sounds and extended techniques came music that demanded from the performer a great deal technically, musically and emotionally. The other works recorded here are fine examples of music from this genre. The ‘new sounds’ can be divided into different categories: Firstly there are the sounds that are easy to make on the instrument. The only example on this CD is the use of key-clicks - this is simply produced by tapping the keys of the instrument hard enough to make a noise. An obvious example of this on the CD can be heard in Argrophylax at 5:10 or 16:18. In the second example the sound is also amplified. Secondly, there are the new sounds that are an extension of techniques that already exist: double, triple and flutter tonguing, range extension and quarter tones. A combination of double and triple tonguing can be heard in Argrophylax at 9:20, while flutter tonguing can be heard in Ausgangspunkte at 2:9. The extension of the range can be heard in Ausgangspunkte at 6:20. Quarter tones are used extensively in many of the works, but a particularly fine example can be found in Pavasiya at 4:17. Sequenza VII uses a few microtonal trills an example of which can be heard at 1:14. Thirdly, sounds that take the oboe into new territory: multiphonics. The performer, through a careful use of exotic fingerings and careful control of the embouchure, creates several pitches simultaneously. Every work on the CD uses these sounds often in combination with other techniques. Recoil uses multiphonics extensively from the opening bar while in Sequenza VII the multiphonics are almost ‘ghost like’ at 6:50. You can also find examples of trilling between different multiphonics in Ausgangspunkte at 10:06. Circular breathing, the technique which allows oboists to maintain very long phrases without seemingly taking a breath is also used - the most obvious example can be found in ‘…sting of the bee…’ One of the striking feature of the music on the CD is the way in which the composers are thinking about and writing for the instrument, often creating a sound world that many would not relate easily to the traditions of the oboe. In a masterclass a few years ago I was demonstrating the highest notes of the instrument and was told that it 'didn’t sound like an oboe’. A better comment would have been ‘I have never heard an oboe sound like that before’. While the other composers on the CD may not necessarily point to Berio as an influence in their work, the Sequenza is a good starting point for music that explores some of the most technically challenging music in the repertoire. Berio had a great interest in virtuosity, which is expressed and explored in his series of Sequenzas. He emphasises, however, that this virtuosity is not simply that of fast fingers but a virtuosity of the intellect as well. Similar statements could be made about the other works on this CD. This is music that demands a great deal of listener and performer alike. It is virtuoso music in the sense that there are many notes and great technical challenges, but unlike much music that could be placed under the banner of ‘virtuoso’, this music is neither frivolous nor is it easy listening. There is great passion here, focused intensity, intellectual depth, it is music that is exuberant, moving and challenging. Michael Finnissy talks in his programme note for Pavasiya of stretching the ‘virtuosic limits of the oboe(s) to the utmost’. This statement could equally be applied at different levels to the other works on this CD, each of which stretches not only the instrument but also the performer. During the course of these works you will hear most of the significant technical developments that have taken place in recent years. One of the aims I had in the recording was to maintain the physical nature of this music. An essential aspect of a number of these works is that they live on the edge of being unplayable. In live performance things do go wrong, notes are missed, the performer can sound as if he/she is struggling to play the works. In this recording I have tried to maintain this quality by not editing out some of the struggles and obvious areas where I find the works technically challenging. The CD opens with one of my solo improvisations. Most of my recitals include improvisation not only in works that demand it, but also improvisations that I myself have developed over a period of time. Improvisation in the ‘classical’ world is seen usually to be the domain of the organist or of the expert baroque specialist, all of which I welcome. In my case however I perform solo (and sometimes duo/trio) improvisations to which I give names. Each improvisation has elements that I wish to explore. These can be technical ideas, formal ideas, pitch ideas etc, and the music is frequently a mixture of many different elements. But improvisation does not stop here. Many of the works on the CD have some elements of improvisation. The Berio asks for an improvisatory approach to the placing of some of the pitches within a very strict framework - the performer’s response to the written text is a vital part of the performance of this work. Young’s work also has a great deal of improvisation both in terms of choice of pitches and the pacing of the work through to the response to the computer’s input. copyright 2006 Christopher Redgate
21.00 eur Buy

Baroque Spirit - La Fontaine

Baroque Spirit - La Fontaine
ID: CC2001
CDs: 1
Type: CD
Subcollection: Historical Instruments

Based in Tokyo, the ensemble "La Fontaine" was founded in l996. Six months after its first concert in October 1996, the ensemble was a prizewinner at the Yamanashi/Tokyo Early Music Competition. In 1998 they participated in the York Early Music Festival in Britain. Two years later, they performed at the International Early Music competition in Bruges, where their performance won the second prize, the audience prize, and an invitation by Philip Pickett to participate in the 2001 Early Music Festival at London's South Bank Centre.

They perform regularly in major cities throughout Japan, including the prestigeous Casals Hall in Tokyo. They have been broadcast several times on Japanese Radio (NHK-FM). This is their second CD.


The CD booklet contains an article (in English, French and German) by Stephen Pettit on the lives of the composers, and also on the social and economic circumstances in which the pieces were written, and for whom. There are more details on the instruments and the players.
21.00 eur Temporarily out of stock

Britten: Six Metamorphoses after Ovid for solo oboe, Op. 49 -Anatomy of a Masterpiece

Britten: Six Metamorphoses after Ovid for solo oboe, Op. 49 -Anatomy of a Masterpiece
ID: CC2017
CDs: 1
Type: CD
Collection: Instrumental
Subcollection: Oboe

The 52-page CD booklet (DVD-size) has a 20,000 word programme note in English, including performance considerations for each movement. Britten's compositional sketches are reproduced in the booklet.
There are many illustrations.

This recording sets out to provide a complete overview of Benjamin Britten’s masterpiece for solo oboe, Six Metamorphoses after Ovid, Op 49. Not only is this work unique in the oboe repertoire but it is also one of the most distinctive examples of solo single-line instrumental writing from any age. It is hoped that performers, listeners, students and teachers will find it a useful resource for the understanding or preparation of such a wonderful work. The Metamorphoses is, though, complex in vision and detail and there is much to discover about the work. From its enigmatic title and colourful movements to its remarkable instrumental writing and technical demands on the player, it holds a certain mystique and can even be baffling to understand. This recording has based itself on an investigation of the literary and artistic background that lies behind the work’s creation, at the primary written sources in its composition and to suggest the reasons for Britten’s interest in writing such a work. In addition, these notes will offer performance suggestions based on Britten’s own remarks on the work, views and performances of players from its dedicatee, Joy Boughton, onwards and the shared experience of teachers and aficionados. My performances on this CD take all the original and subsequent evidence into account. They do not aspire to be definitive in any way but they do seek to be as true to Britten’s intentions as possible. Joy Boughton’s 1952 recording is an important source for all aspects of interpretation, and other recordings by artists whose playing Britten knew, including Sarah Francis, Janet Craxton and Heinz Holliger, are valuable sources. Evidence that Britten was very keen on accuracy to what he wrote influences this interpretation, but there is also an acceptance that Britten’s own views on the work may have changed over time as he came into contact with performers. Perhaps most significantly, this recording presents for the first time the sketch from Britten’s pocket diary in March 1951, most of the material from his manuscript sources, and the original Boughton recording as a point of reference. To complete this study of the work, a recent recording by Nicholas Daniel provides a third performance for comparison.

1. General
Introduction
Background
A work for unaccompanied oboe
Literary influences
Ovid
The visual arts
2. Sources and Interpretations
The printed edition
Metronome marks
The Krebs letter
CD tracks 1-6: George Caird's performance:
Pan (1:48), Phaeton (1:29), Niobe (2:26),
Bacchus (1:53), Narcissus (3:04), Arethusa (2:49)
CD track 7: The Diary Sketch (1:52)
CD tracks 8-29: Performances by George Caird
from the Composition Sketch and Fair Copy
CD tracks 30-35: Joy Boughton's 1952
performance: Pan (2:09), Phaeton (1:30),
Bacchus (2:02), Niobe (2:16),
Narcissus (2:26), Arethusa (2:53)
CD tracks 36-41: Nicholas Daniel:
Pan (2:20), Phaeton (1:20), Niobe (2:36),
Bacchus (1:38), Narcissus (3:12), Arethusa (2:42)
Biographies
3. References
Bibliography
Discography
Picture references
21.00 eur Buy

Virtuoso Oboe Music by Antonio Pasculli - Ch.Redgat, oboe and S. Robbings, piano

Virtuoso Oboe Music by Antonio Pasculli - Ch.Redgat, oboe and S. Robbings, piano
ID: CC2006
CDs: 1
Type: CD
Subcollection: Oboe

The CD booklet contains a 2,000-word essay by Christopher Redgate on the music and life of Antonino Pasculli in English, Italian and German. The photos include two of Pasculli and one of his Triébert oboe.


Antonino Pasculli was born in 1842. The great violin virtuoso Paganini had died two years previously (also an Italian, a performer and a composer) and Franz Liszt was touring Europe as a dazzling virtuoso. Some have likened Pasculli to Paganini and perhaps for good reason; he must at least have known the reputation of these two giants.

But there were others. The concept of the performer/composer was very common in both the 18th and 19th centuries. Many of them wrote music for their own use, and often specifically to display their techniques. There were many fine oboist/composers during this period - Casimir Lalliet (1837-92) and Stanislas Verroust (1814-63) to name but two. What sets the music of Antonino Pasculli apart, however, is the extreme technical demands he makes upon the oboist (I know of nothing else from the 19th century repertoire to compare with the challenges he poses), and the creative ways in which he uses his chosen material. copyright Christopher Redgate 2003
21.00 eur Temporarily out of stock

Rare Goossens - Oboe Concertos

Rare Goossens - Oboe Concertos
ID: CC2005
CDs: 1
Type: CD
Subcollection: Oboe

Recorded between 1925 and 1947

The CD booklet contains an essay (in English, French and German) about Goossens and his art by Melvin Harris which has recieved much praise - "Melvin Harris' excellently supportive booklet note" (Classical Music Web); "Melvin Harris, author of the excellent insert note" (Gramophone). There are photographs from Goossens' early and middle life, including some not seen before.


Of Léon Goossens it was once said: "There is perhaps only one other musician who can so etherialise his instrument. One thinks of Casals and his cello."

But it was not always so. In his early days Léon Goossens was dissatisfied with the models he was expected to emulate. His first teacher was Charles Reynolds, the renowned lead oboist of the Hallé Orchestra. Great though he was at teaching breath control and practice passages, his tone and phrasing held no magic for his young pupil. Etherealisation was absent from a tone that was broad, without vibrato and, as Léon put it, "bullish". Indeed, to mute his instrument, Reynolds used to hang a robust pocket handkerchief over his music stand and project into it!

Later studies at London's Royal College of Music brought no real inspiration, for the oboe professor there was William Malsch, a kindly man, but an unlovely player. He was dropped from the Queen's Hall Orchestra since his tone set Sir Henry Wood's teeth on edge. An American critic agreed, when he wrote "His tone bites like sulphuric acid".

The great breakthrough came when Léon heard the Belgian oboist Henri De Busscher play at the Queen's Hall. De Busscher's playing was delicate and expressive, with a marvellous singing quality about it. His long, sensitive phrases were a marvel. His cameo-like tone was endowed with a warm vibrato. This was the inspiration that Léon had yearned for. Night after night he listened out for De Busscher's solos, then went back to his room to emulate and aim for the same subtle and singing control over his oboe. He was an eager and gifted pupil, so much so that when De Busscher left for New York, Henry Wood chose the 16-year-old Goossens to take his place. copyright Melvin Harris, 2002
21.00 eur Buy

New Ground - Seven World Premiere Recordings

New Ground - Seven World Premiere Recordings
ID: CC2003
CDs: 1
Type: CD
Subcollection: Oboe

The CD booklet contains (in English, French and German) a description of each piece, a biography and photo of each composer, and the libretto of Fox Woman.


Xas-Orion was conceived by Paul Goodey and Michael Oliva as a duo for oboe and electronics organised in 33 triggered events. Both parts are organised around the note 'B' which forms a core, rather than a tonal centre. The distinction between the the two sound worlds of oboe and electronics is deliberately blurred.

New Ground (by David Sutton-Anderson) is a set of linked variations on Purcell's keyboard piece 'A New Ground' heard at the outset.

Ostrich on the Plain (by Graham Fitkin) was written in 1985. There were two starting points: first, the manipulation of speed using metric modulation, and second, the sheer effort in playing the oboe.

At the Still Point of the Turning World... (by Edwin Roxburgh) has the sound of the oboe fed through a system of six delays, ranging from 4.2 to 60 seconds, plus filtering and modulation. The whole system is controlled by a graphic score.

Into the Light (by Michael Oliva) is a piece in the Romantic tradition of the tone poem. It takes the form of a journey from death (cor anglais) into a supposed afterlife (oboe) in which the piano plays the role of a sort of 'pulse giver'.

Diptych (Abstractions IV) by Timothy Salter has two movements, the first marked 'with feverish energy' and the second 'reflective yet with intensity; restless, agitated'. The mood at the end of the first movement is carried over into the cor anglais soliloquy that opens the second.

Fox Woman(music by Cecilia McDowall, words by Christie Dickason) uses the oboe in a way that exploits not only its elegance and subtlety, but also its potential for brutality. This range suggests the Japanes myths of fox spirits, dangerous shape-shifters which often took the form of beautiful women.
21.00 eur Buy

An English Renaissance - George Caird,oboe and friends

An English Renaissance - George Caird,oboe and friends
ID: CC2009
CDs: 1
Type: CD
Subcollection: Oboe

George Caird (oboe) with
Simon Blendis (violin), Louise Williams (viola), Jane Salmon (cello), Alison Dods (violin 2 in Maconchy, Gow), David Adams (violin 2 in Bliss)


The CD booklet contains a 2,500-word article by George Caird on the music in English, French and German.
There are more photos of the performers and the recording session.


This recording brings together five remarkable works for oboe and strings written between 1926 and 1946 and representing an English renaissance for the oboe as a chamber music instrument. It is a period which is musically very rich and diverse, with English composers showing new influences from Europe and America. The range and expression across these works is striking and is a tribute to the artistry of the oboist Léon Goossens, who is the dedicatee of three of the works and who taught the dedicatees of certainly one and possibly both of the other two. He was also the player behind two other important works by Bax and Finzi. These magnificent seven works, it can be argued, established a repertoire for oboe quartets and quintets and did much to promote the oboe as a chamber music instrument.

Goossens’ exquisite playing was characterised by a distinctive and sensitive sound, beautiful phrasing, a wide dynamic and tonal range and great rhythmic vitality. His collaboration with Sir Arnold Bax produced the first significant work for oboe and strings, the Quintet written in 1922 and recorded by Goossens with the International Quartet in 1924 (featured on Oboe Classics CC2005). Bax’s music, with its pastoral and elegiac qualities together with a strong Irish influence leant itself superbly to Goossens’ playing and this work must surely be partly responsible for the works on this recording. copyright George Caird 2004
21.00 eur Buy

Though Lovers be Lost -Music shadowing the two World Wars

Though Lovers be Lost -Music shadowing the two World Wars
ID: CC2008
CDs: 1
Type: CD
Subcollection: Oboe

The CD booklet contains a 2,000-word essay by Emily Pailthorpe on the music and the times in English, French and German. The photos include more of the performers, composers and the recording session.

The period between the two World Wars was one of violence, conflict, loss, nostalgia, yet great creative energy - qualities which are reflected in this collection of works for oboe and piano. These pieces conjure up a time in which loss was familiar, change seemed relentless, and yet a frenzy of exuberant artistic work was taking place. In her book 'Testament of Youth' (1933) Vera Brittain writes of the time: "Only gradually did I realize that the War had condemned me to live to the end of my days in a world without confidence and security, a world in which every dear personal relationship would be fearfully cherished under the shadow of apprehension."

The five composers represented in this disc were each directly affected by the extraordinary circumstances of the inter-war period, and their reactions were personal and diverse. Together, these pieces create not only a varied recital programme but also a window into this highly charged time. Living in the shadow of such desolation it is awe-inspiring and affirming that these men chose still to express themselves through the universal language of music. They speak clearly to us across the gulf of time in a way that is best expressed by these words of Dylan Thomas:

Though Lovers be lost, love shall not;
And death shall have no dominion.

copyright 2003 Emily Pailthorpe
21.00 eur Temporarily out of stock

 
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