SARAH FRANCIS gave the British premiere of Koechlin's oboe sonata on May 18 in London's Purcell Room with Peter Dickinson, pianist. The work was recently rediscovered by Miss Francis, who gave what seems to have been its first performance in nearly fifty years.
Robert Maycock writing in Music and Musicians calls it
"a sprawling and curious work, not just a curiosity to be sure, but forever heading off along esoteric sidetracks whenever it seems about to show signs of coherence. Each movement begins with an attractive and well characterized idea, and each loses its way, the scherzo most disastrously, for this movement's theme is stretched and stretched until it thins out to a succession of fourths and fifths upon which the oboe leaps about to its heart's content, and rather beyond the audience's patience, finally collapsing on to a trill and snapped off by a brutal and irrelevant piano discord. A bad joke, and in this movement the pianist has to work very hard without obvious rewards. Perhaps this emphasis is unfair, for Koechlin's rather perverse individuality certainly gives an original slant to the influences of Faure and Debussy that constitute the other immediately striking characteristic of the piece. There are plenty of appealing episodes in a very French, cool and euphonious manner, and in any case the oboe's repertoire is not so packed with masterpieces that a sonata as substantial as this can be sneezed at."
On May 22, GEORGE CAIRD presented a Purcell Room recital assisted by John Blakely, pianist. Sonatas by CPE Bach and York Bowen, the Reizenstein Sonatina, and Priaulx Rainier's Pastoral Triptych (for oboe solo) were performed.
More London performances include HEINZ HOLLIGER's collaboration with Aurele Nicolet, flutist, and the London Sinfonietta under David Atherton in double concertos of Ligeti and Stamitz. (Albert Hall, September 11). TESS MILLER was soloist with the London Bach Orchestra in the Mozart Concerto, K. 314 (Elizabeth Hall, October 4); EVELYN BARBIROLLI presented a recital of baroque music assisted by Valda Aveling, harpsichord and Dennis Nesbitt viola da gamba in the Purcell Room on October 16; and JENNIFER PORCAS performed L 'Horloge de Flore by Jean Francaix with the Chanticleer Orchestra under Ruth Gipps (Elizabeth Hall, October 18).
GAIL WARNAAR of the faculty of Hope College, Holland Michigan gave the first performance of Claire Polin's Telemannicon (two canons written for solo oboe, or two oboes canonically) at the triennial conference of the Delta Omicron International Music Fraternity. (August 9, Fort Collins, Colorado). In a program note, Mrs. Warnaar makes the following remarks: "As is implied in its name Telemannicon is written after the fashion of the well-known early 18th century canonic sonatas. The slow sections have all the warmth and beauty of a baroque adagio . . . the allegro encompasses the rhythmic drive of Telemann minus an eighth note from the traditional metrical pulse, and with a free style introduction and a warm meno section . . . Between the two voices of the canon harmonies are dissonant and rhythms complex. The oboist is required to perform multiphonic sounds, harmonics, glissandi, rapidly repeated tongued passages, and isolated tones above the traditional top of the range. The canons are not "effect" pieces, but well constructed, artistic, musical works." In this performance the canons were performed by Mrs. Warnaar with a pre-recorded tape .
When he is not busy keeping the finances of IDRS in good order, playing in the Fort Worth Symphony, and teaching at Texas Christian University, NOAH KNEPPER finds time to maintain the various embouchures and reeds to give recitals like the one on September 20, in which he performed four Hindemith sonatas - for clarinet, flute, bassoon, and English horn. He was assisted in this unusual display of versatility by Judith Solomon, pianist. (Ed Landreth Auditorium, TCU Fort Worth).
GREG STEINKE presented a recital at California State University at Northridge where he is a member of the faculty on September 20. The program included sonatas of CPE Bach and Gunther Schuller, the Schumann Romances, the Loeffler Rhapsodies, and Jere Hutcheson's Construction Set. He was assisted by Elmer Heerema, pianist, and Myron Sandler, violist.
JAMES LAKIN (assisted by University of Iowa faculty artists) presented a program of music for oboe and strings on October 9. Works of JS Bach, Mozart, Arthur Bliss, and the Diaphonic Suite No. 4 for oboe and cello by Ruth Crawford-Seeger were performed. (Clapp Recital Hall, Iowa City).
PETER and ELIZABETH HEDRICK assisted by Mary Ann Covert, harpsichord, presented a program for oboes, recorders and shawms at the Carnegie Recital Hall in New York on October 11. The ensemble is called the "Muse's Delight." Mr. Hedrick is a member of the faculty of Ithaca College, Ithaca, New York.
JOHN deLANCIE was soloist with the Bach Orchestra of Washington on October 13 in the JS Bach Concerto for Oboe and Violin, BWV 1060 with Marcel Debot, violinist- and in the second Brandenburg Concerto. (First Baptist Church, Washington, DC).
MICHEL PIGUET, assisted by James Weaver harpsichordist, presented a program of music for recorders and baroque oboe at the Smithsonian's Hall of Musical Instruments (Washington, DC) on November 2. The reviewer, Joan Reinthaler, found his recorder playing virtuosic, "but his command of the oboe was even more impressive, perhaps because there are so few people around today who can make that instrument sound like something besides Donald Duck with hay fever. Piguet's arsenal of gentle attacks, legato phrasing and dynamic variety, added to the bite and focus the instrument has naturally, supplies him with all the techniques needed for the baroque repertoire he plays . . ."
PATRICIA GRIGNET with the artists of the Theatre Chamber Players continues her explorations through some of the lesser-known, very demanding by-ways of the oboe literature. On November 4, at the Baird Auditorium in Washington, she performed what may be the US premiere of Juerg Wyttenbach's Drei Saetze for oboe, harp, and piano. Joseph McLellan in the Washington Post wrote: "I was glad the applause was loud and prolonged that the players repeated it, because it sounded even better the second time . . . Most of its texture consisted of lovely (if slightly angular) arabesques by Patricia Grignet's oboe, with pointillistic accompaniment ."