HEINZ HOLLIGER was soloist with the Collegium Musicum Zurich (under Paul Sacher) during their Australian tour. He received great critical acclaim for his performances of Richard Meale's concerto Evocations
The Concentus Musicus of Vienna visited the United States during October affording many of us the opportunity to hear the wonderful JURG SCHAEFTLEIN and his colleague PAUL HAILPERIN in person. SCHAEFTLEIN will perform the Bach Double Concerto in Berkeley, California during this tour.
RANDALL COOK will tour with the Music from Marlboro group performing Donald Tovey's Trio in D Minor for English horn, violin, and piano.
PIERRE FEIT will visit the United States for the first time in early 1975 as guest artist with the Slovenian String Trio.
In the course of the Soni Ventorum's recent tour of Latin American countries, LAILA STORCH performed the Marcello d minor Concerto with the Orchestra of Puerto Rico in Hato Rey (San Juan).
ANTHONY CAMDEN, one of the London Symphony Orchestra's principals, is touring the United States with the London Virtuosi, an ensemble of flute, oboe, and strings.
SARAH FRANCIS brings to our attention an important
new concerto Ariadne by the English composer Gordon Crosse. She has
performed it with the London Symphony Orchestra at the Royal Albert Hall on
August 7 and thereafter recorded it for Argo. The work is published by Oxford
University Press. I quote from Michael Johnson's program note for the Albert
Hall performance:
Ariadne lasts about 20 minutes and plays continuously. It is divided into three sections. The first and last are predominantly lyrical statements . . . the second, which is fast, becomes increasingly complex harmonically and builds up through a series of developments of the thematic material into a wild dance, during which the soloist is instructed to play with a coarse tone . . . Despite the chamber-music quality of a good deal of the scoring the solo oboe, whose part is exceedingly taxing, remains a true concerto soloist and carries much of the musical argument. Indeed, the soloist is given melody of uncommon richness to play, as well as passages of virtuoso brilliance which makes similar demands on the accompanying ensemble.
Miss Francis is professor of oboe at the Royal College of Music London.
JAMES BROWN, a member of the English Chamber Orchestra, has given two performances of great interest. The first is Anton Reicha's Scene pour le Cor Anglais, which was written in 1811, possibly for the French virtuoso Gustav Vogt. Mr. Brown calls it a really splendid and important work. He performed it on a broadcast with the BBC Concert Orchestra conducted by Lawrence Ashley on January 12. This work is soon to be published by McGinnis and Marx of New York. On February 23, he gave the first performance in England of the Concertino, Opus 110 by the Bohemian composer Kalliwoda, a marvelously virtuoso piece, a romantic jewel recently recorded by Han de Vries and one of the best oboe pieces of the nineteenth century. Incidentally, Mr. de Vries informs me that this work is to be published by Musica Rara of London.
The Reicha English horn piece reminds me of an extraordinary monograph by MICHAEL FINKELMAN entitled An Historical Biblio-discography of Music for the English Horn. The author showed me a copy in Miami and I was most impressed with the labor and scholarship which has gone into this listing. It is on file in the IDRS Library and perhaps copies may be available from Mr. Finkelman. His address is 1118 Gainsboro Road, Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania 19004.
MELVIN BERMAN'S film on reed-making is being enthusiastically received. ROBERT SPRENKLE of the Eastman School of Music sends these comments: "Beginning with the selection of a measured piece of oboe tube cane, Professor Berman of the University of Toronto faculty carefully enacts the steps in the birth and development of a finished reed. Both his commentary and the background of orchestral excerpts are well done. This 16mm sound film should be especially helpful for the novice trying to make reeds "by the book" because there is no substitute for actually seeing the proper tools being correctly used." The film was produced by the University of Toronto Instructional Media Centre.
HAN de VRIES has premiered a concerto for trombone,
oboe, and two orchestras by Toru Takemitsu on October 17 in Cologne, Germany,
and in May he will perform the third oboe concerto written for him by Bruno
Maderna, in Vienna. Following the great success of his recording of romantic
oboe concertos, he has recently recorded three more: works of Bernhard Molique,
Julius Rietz, and Rimsky-Korsakov. He will tour Japan in February of 1975 and
will be in the US with the Danzi Quintet in March, and in recitals and
appearances with the Amati Quartet in April.
WALTER JOUVAL, first oboist of the South African Broadcasting Orchestra in Johannesburg has recently recorded the Vivaldi A Minor Concerto, the Bach "Ich Habe Genug" Cantata with Gerard Souzay, the Telemann E Minor Sonata, Reizenstein's Three Concert Pieces, and the Bach Double Concerto with Leif Hansen, former concertmaster of The Wellington Symphony of New Zealand. With Joseph de Groen, principal bassoonist of the SABC, he has recently performed the Poulenc Trio at Johannesburg's German School. Mr. Jouval was co-principal of the Israel Philharmonic for twelve years, and spent some four years in the US where he was principal in the New Orleans Philharmonic (my immediate successor there!) and the National Symphony of Washington, DC.
KARL VENTZKE writes with word of a German journal entitled "Die Oboe" which survived through nine issues from 1928 through 1931. He owns a complete file and promises reprints of some of the more significant articles.
The Auloi Double Reed Ensemble of Cornell College, Mt. Vernon, Iowa, is a nine-member group directed by E. HARVEY JEWELL. Their April, 1974 concert included works of Telemann, Baldassare, Galuppi, Beethoven, Britten, Osborne, and Hovhaness. Another concert of double reed ensemble music took place at the California Institute of the Arts, Valencia under the direction of ALLAN VOGEL and WILLIAM DOUGLAS, oboist and bassoonist of the faculty respectively. This February, 1974 concert included the Beethoven Mozart Variations, several Bach transcriptions, Debussy's La Fille aux Cheveux de Lin, and for an encore, Sousa's Stars and Stripes Forever!
Others planning ensemble concerts should investigate the Trio in A Major (1966) of Miloslav Korinek. This work was performed for the first time outside of Czechoslovakia on June 1 and 2, 1974 by three Michigan State University students, MICHAEL GRIFFITH, CHARLES FULLERTON, and VIRGINIA LOWREY. The work is charming, non-controversial, and worth investigating. Consult the Czechoslovak Music Information Centre, Prague.
Gerard Billaudot's new editions of music for oboe under the artistic direction of PIERRE PIERLOT are making significant contributions to the oboe literature.
RONALD ROSEMAN was principal oboist of the New York Philharmonic during HAROLD GOMBERG's sabbatical leave. He was again at the Aspen Festival where in addition to teaching a class in baroque ornamentation, he performed the Beethoven Mozart Variations (with MARIAN GIBSON and PHILIP WEST), the Mozart Concertante, and the Barber Capricorn Concerto, as well as the Vaughan Williams Blake Songs with Jan deGaetani.
PAMELA PECHA WOODS has joined the San Antonio Symphony; JOHN SCOTT is principal oboist of the Tulsa Philharmonic; JOSEPH ROBINSON has joined the faculty of the North Carolina School of the Arts, Winston-Salem; VIRGINIA LOWREY is teaching double reeds at Frostburg State College in Maryland; and ROBERT SORTON has joined the Miami Philharmonic.
BRUCE LEVINE has sent a number of his compositions for oboe and English horn. They include Syncrons (for oboe, clarinet, viola, tuba, and electronic sounds); Colours for oboe and piano; Introspection for oboe or English horn solo; Monologue I for English horn; and Duet for alto flute and English horn. He offers them to oboist members of IDRS for the cost of printing and postage; copies are also available from the IDRS Library. Mr. Levine's address: 135 Clinton Street, Apt. 6U, Hempstead, New York 11550.
