Bernard Schenkel became first oboist of the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande in Geneva in 1974. He was born in 1941 in Nyon, Switzerland (on Lake Geneva), and until 1961 studied law at the University of Lausanne; he also studied music at the Lausanne Conservatory, where he was an oboe student of Professor Edgar Shann. From 1961 through 1964 he studied at the Geneva Conservatory with Professor Roger Reversy. In 1968 he received the third medal in the Concours International d'Execution Musicale at Geneva. He has also taken master classes with Andre Lardrot and Heinz Holliger. He has been a member of the Lausanne Chamber Orchestra, first oboist of the Tonhalle Orchestra of Zurich (under Rudolf Kempe and Ferdinand Leitner), first oboist of the Lucerne Festival Orchestra and of the Wurttemberg State Orchestra and the opera orchestra of Stuttgart. As a soloist he has played across Switzerland and in foreign countries, as well as for recordings and television tapings. He has recorded for Electrola, ERATO, and Phillips; as soloist with I Musici; and has participated in the music festivals of Athens, Gstaad, Ibiza, and the Yehudi Menhuin Festival . . . the London Times remarked on "his beautifully mellow, liquid tone, which immediately caught the ear, likewise his intuitive feeling for the shape of a phrase. A showpiece like Lailliet's "Carnaval de Venise" Variations left little doubt of his agility either. But it was his caressing way with melody that always impressed most, whether in Schumann's Three Romances, or Britten's Metamorphoses after Ovid, which, because unaccompanied, allowed the best appreciation of his intimate nuances and graceful arabesques." La Suisse of August 4, 1977 commented:
"Bernard Schenkel peut etre considéré comme "le" hautboiste suisse, apres Holliger. Un talent fou, une technique époustouflante, une musicalité innée: que demander de plus? A vrai dire, les doux Concertino où il intervenait en soliste lors du concert d'hier N'étaient pas faits, de prime abord, pour déchanier l'enthousiasme du mélomane. Donizetti, c'est léger, mais ça n'a pas l'étincelle du génie. Kalliwoda (compositeur de nationalité tchèque), c'est déjà un peu Smetana, tout en restant trop souvent scolaire. De là à faire du Concertino pour cor anglais et orchestre, du premier, et du Concertino pour hautbois et orchestre, du second, des pièces de bravoure d'un intérèt soutenu du début à la fin, il y fallait la sensibilité et l'extraordinaire variete de couleurs d'un Bernard Schenkel. De longues ovations ont selue l'artiste comme il se devail."
European oboists who have visited the United States in the current season include Neil Black and James Brown who with the English Chamber Orchestra, have performed in both large and small musical centers in the United States, and more recently, in many localities in Mexico. Neil Black is an extraordinary musician who is difficult to categorize. At an age when most musicians are attending conservatory, he was studying for a degree in history at Oxford. He will participate in Rudolf Serkin's Marlboro Festival this season -- the first European oboist to be invited. His concerto recordings, mainly with the English Chamber Orchestra and the Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, have brought him a world-wide reputation. Of particular interest are the Ten Blake Songs of Vaughan Williams with the tenor Robert Tear (on Argo ARG 732.)
Michel Piguet with his Basel-based group, II Divertimento, has toured the United States with great success. Their performances, utilizing period instruments, have included serenades of Mozart, Beethoven, Haydn, and Krommer, and the trios of Beethoven. Jurg Schaeftlein, with his colleagues in the Concentus Musicus Wien, has also enjoyed great critical success during their tour of the US.
Ray Still was soloist with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Georg Solti conducting, in the Strauss Concerto, in December, 1978. John Von Rhein of the Chicago Tribune commented that Still "who will presently celebrate his 25th season as principal oboe, has been playing it long enough to know how to make its old-fashioned gestures charm rather than cloy. He spreads his distinctive tone on the music like butter to a hot slice of strudel, shaping the long, florid phrases so artfully that one had to listen carefully to detect any pauses for breath." Robert C. Marsh of the Chicago Sun-Times called "Ray Still a remarkable artist, one of the prizes of the orchestra, and his distinctive tone was one of the fine things about this performance. But his playing was often plain and literal when, it seemed to me, a certain romantic exuberance in sound and phrasing was called for. But Solti, too, seemed to prefer a plain, literal approach, and I did not find it right for this music."
Donald Baker, principal oboist of the Detroit Symphony, appeared in two works at a chamber concert in January. In Hindemith's Die Serenaden, he joined tenor George Shirley, and DSO colleagues David Ireland, violist, and Mario DiFiore, cellist. The program also included Loeffler's Deux Rhapsodies, in which pianist Lawrence LaGore joined Mr. Baker and Mr. Ireland. While Free Press reviewer John Guinn was full of praise for Mr. Baker's beautiful playing, he found the Loeffler pieces a "deadly melange filled with cheap imitations of what every other composer had done 30 years before...." I don't think many oboists would agree!--Ed.
Pierre Feit joined forces with three young musicians--the Trio d'Accordo--for a debut under the name of the Pierre Feit Concertino. Mr. Feit is a Frenchman of German ancestry who has made several tours of the United States with various string ensembles. In this concert at New York's Abraham Goodman House, the ensemble presented Britten's Fantasy Quartet and Mozart's Quartet, K. 370 New York Times reviewer Donal Henahan found Mr. Feit's tone "somewhat shrill but not squawky in the style favored by so many Continental oboists . . . it did not have much in the way of subtle shades and colors." In the course of this U.S. tour during February, Mr. Feit also appeared with Detroit's Michigan Chamber Orchestra, under Eve Queler, in three concerti--the Handel G Minor, the BeSlini, and the Bach Double Concerto with concertmaster Alcestis Perry.
Bruce Weinstein performed the Haydn Concerto with the chamber orchestra of the Grand Rapids Symphony under Theo Alcantara on January 18. Mr. Weinstein is a New York native and studied with Harold Gomberg and Ronald Roseman; before coming to the Grand Rapids Symphony he was first oboist of the Fort Wayne Philharmonic and has participated in the Berkshire Festival at Tanglewood.
Joseph Robinson, in his first season as first oboist of the New York Philharmonic, performed the Vivaldi D Minor Concerto with the orchestra under Zubin Mehta in subscription concerts in November and December of 1978. Donal Henahan spoke of Mr. Robinson's "seamless line and smooth tone", but found the concerto "like many other Vivaldi concertos .... to be almost without distinctive features, but its commonplaces were rendered more than bearable by Mr. Robinson."
Robin Hough performed the Strauss Concerto with the Texas Little Symphony at the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, on January 23; Alceo Bocchino conducted. Mr. Hough teaches at the University of Texas in Arlington and has a doctorate from North Texas State University where he studied with Charles Veazey. He has also studied with David Serrins, Roger Lord of the London Symphony, and Ray Still.
Jurg Schaeftlein will teach a baroque oboe workshop from May 21 to June 9 in Vienna. Applications should be made by April 1, but Mr. Schaeftlein feels a few latecomers may be considered. Write, giving a short description of background and former study, as well as the type of instrument you plan to use at the workshop. The fee is 1,500 Austrian Schillings (about $110.00 US at the moment). Write to Rektorat de Hochschule fur Musik und darstellende Kunst, Lothringerstrasse 18, A1030 Wien (Vienna), Austria
James Caldwell announces the eighth annual Baroque Performance Institute at Oberlin College, June 17 through July 8 under the musical direction of August Wenzinger of the Schola Cantorum of Basel. Faculty concerts will emphasize the music of Vienna from 1650-1800. The Institute will offer master classes, ensembles and consorts, lectures and demonstrations, and faculty and student concerts. Mr. Caldwell teaches the baroque oboe and Grant Moore will be his associate. For more information write Mr. Caldwell at the Oberlin College Conservatory of Music, Oberlin, Ohio 44074, or call him at 216/775-8200.