ROBERT WEINER is now first oboist of the Oklahoma City Symphony. While he was on the faculty of Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, he premiered a new piece for oboe and actor - Insani - by Christopher Rouse. Mr. Weiner performed the work last February and sends this description:
"Insani deals with mental illness. Each section of the work is a disturbingly accurate musical portrait of aspects of mentally ill persons. The oboe is called upon to display virtuosity throughout the piece. There are sections wherein the oboe must play on a bassoon reed, play multiphonic sounds, and use electronic amplification. The actor must use his voice and play several percussion instruments - wood block, vibraslap, Tibetan prayer stones, flexatone, string drum, ratchet, and bass drum. The voice use is unconventional and calls for a variety of sounds using phonetic characters. Audience reaction to the piece was overwhelming. There was silence for a few seconds, then unrestrained cheering (unusual at oboe recitals!) I feel that a new piece written as well as this should be known because the piece so successfully involves listener and performer."
The music can be obtained by writing to: Christopher Rouse, Cornell University, Music Department, Lincoln Hall, Ithaca, New York 14580.
HEINZ HOLLIGER will appear in Toronto on March 8,
1975. The program will include Berio's Sequenza VII, and three Holliger
works: "h" for woodwind quintet; Cardiophonie (in
which a microphone is placed over the soloist's heart and the heartbeats are
played back over a loudspeaker); and Kreis for seven players. All four
works will be Canadian premieres. Holliger will perform his Siebengesang
in New York in May.
The Rittenhouse Square Women's Committee for the Philadelphia Orchestra has commissioned a work by David Amram to be performed during the bicentennial season 1975 76. Mr. Amram's work will be written for solo oboe, soprano, and orchestra. The commissioned composition will be a memorial to Marcel Tabuteau for whom the Rittenhouse Square Committee formed a special memorial fund in 1966. JOHN deLANCIE, principal oboist of the Philadelphia Orchestra, finalized the Amram commission and served on the Tabuteau Fund's original honorary committee. Mr. deLancie was a pupil and former colleague of Tabuteau.
The International Edition has begun to release a series of works for oboe edited by THOMAS STACY, English horn player of the New York Philharmonic. Among the compositions in this series are the Brod Etudes, the Handel G Minor Concerto, and the two Beethoven works for two oboes and English horn.
RAY STILL gave master classes during the summer at Stratford in Ontario, at Northwestern University, and at Courtenay in British Columbia, where he also performed the Strauss Concerto. He performed the Schumann Romances with James Levine at the Ravinia Festival.