An unusually enterprising debut took place at London's Wigmore Hall on February 20 . . . ROBIN CANTER, oboist and Elizabeth Routier, pianist, presented a program full of worthwhile items, including works they have written for themselves for oboe and piano duo. Also featured were the Berio Sequenza VII, the Schumann Romances, and a real novelty, the Gran Concerto per Oboe con Pianoforte sopra motivi dell' opera I Vespri Siciliani di Verdi by the 19th century oboe virtuoso Antonio Pasculli, who taught at the Palermo Conservatory in the1860's.
NIGEL TREHERNE's Wigmore Hall recital (also in February) likewise included the Berio and Schumann works, as well as the JS Bach sonata; Kristi Becker was his pianist.
HEINZ HOLLIGER presented the world premiere of Luciano Berio's Chemins IV (a version of the well-known Sequenza, with eleven string instruments) with the London Sinfonietta, the composer conducting, on the occasion of Berio's fiftieth birthday concert, October 17, 1975, at London's Queen Elizabeth Hall. . . . . Chemins IV was given its American premiere in a brilliant performance by JOHN MACK with members of the Cleveland Orchestra, the composer conducting, in the spring of 1976. . . . MAURICE BOURGUE gave the work its Paris premiere on October 1 in a chamber concert of members of the Orchestre de Paris, Daniel Barenboim conducting, at the Theatre des Champs Elysees.
Many Americans will have the opportunity to hear this great artist (M. BOURGUE) with his oboist colleagues, JACQUES CHAMBON, J. CLAUDE JABOULAY, and English horn player ALAIN DENIS, during the fall, 1976 US tour of the Orchestre de Paris . . . . they already have a great many admirers through their records, and Ravel's suite "Le Tombeau de Couperin" is included in the tour repertoire.
JANET CRAXTON's London Oboe Quartet presented two premieres in their April 3 Wigmore Hall recital - works of Knussen and N. Saunders; Miss Craxton promises further details on these new works.
PHILIP JONES assisted by John McCabe, pianist, presented works by Loeillet, Berkeley, Schumann, Nielsen, and Poulenc in his May 10 Wigmore Hall recital.
JANET CRAXTON appeared with organist Alan Harverson in a summer series of organ chamber concerts at London's Queen Elizabeth Hall. Nicholas Webber writing in Music and Musicians calls their recital an
"evening replete in sheer entertainment value solos and duets ranging from Scheidemann to Britten." The Fantasie for oboe and organ by Krebs provided a genteel exercise in coordination of the two instruments: warm yet undemonstrative music of the gilded salon. In two solo Fantasias by Telemann (originally intended for flute). . . . .Craxton executed the many trills and grace-notes with charm and spirit. The concert included two contemporary works for oboe and organ: a Canzona by Henk Badings and Elizabeth Maconchy's Touchstone, in the presence of the composer. The Indonesian Badings was a mine engineer before turning to music and there is much scientific precision in this work of 1938. The organ is used here in much the same way Hindemith uses it in his three sonatas for the instrument, while the oboe supplies a kind of cantilena, much of it in the high register. As one might expect, nothing particularly outre . . . .The Maconchy piece, too, works well within its frame of reference, taking both character and name from the jester in As You Like It. Although opportunities for performing it are necessarily restricted by the instruments deployed, it certainly merits wider performance as one of the most sensible pieces for organ and a second instrument to emerge during the last few years."
MICHAEL HENOCH was soloist in Francaix's L'Horloge de Flore with the Chicago Symphony, Henry Mazer conducting on October 7, 1975; Mr. Henoch is assistant principal oboist of the CSO.
STEPHEN BERKELHAMMER gave a program of baroque music in Carnegie Recital Hall in New York on March 4; assisted by Peter Wolf, harpsichordist, he presented a program of sonatas by Veracini, Vivaldi, Loeillet, and Telemann, utilizing the oboe and alto and soprano recorders a former student of Ronald Roseman and Lois Wann, he has played English horn with the Spokane Symphony.
RAY STILL took some time off from his work as principal oboist of the Chicago Symphony to present a series of chamber concerts in a number of cities including Toronto, Cleveland, and New York. Assisted by Milan Turkovic, principal bassoonist of the Vienna Symphony, and John Perry of the piano faculty of the University of Texas in Austin, he presented "an evening of delightfully different chamber music. Stylish performances, unhackneyed repertory, and the enthusiasm of a capacity audience at Carnegie Recital Hall their impeccable ensemble rapport was one of the evening's special pleasures. Mr. Still's masterly performances had great authority and verve." . . . in the opinion of Robert Sherman writing in the New York Times. In a Chicago Tribune feature likening CSO players to members of a baseball team, their distinguished first oboist was dubbed Ray (the "A") Still . . . . . a short quote: "his instrument is so difficult to play that one quipster defined it as an 'ill woodwind which nobody blows good,' but Still makes it seem easy. A 'primo uomo' (male version of prima donna) in every sense of the word, Still's big tone and highly individualized playing style are easily recognizable without referring to the scorecard. One conductor said recently that 'an invisible spotlight moves toward him any time he plays a solo.' "
Gerard Souzay performed two JS Bach cantatas, the Kreuzstab (#56) and Ich habe genug (#82) during the South Bank Summer Music Festival in London in August, 1975, Richard Evedon writing in The Musical Times found him "nearly upstaged by TESS MILLER playing the concertante oboe solos with steady, rounded tone and seamless phrasing"
ROBERT WEINER, principal oboist of the Oklahoma Symphony Orchestra was soloist in the Handel G Minor Concerto on January 19 and 20, Ainslee Cox conducting; and in the Bach C Minor Double Concerto, with Lacy McLarry, violinist on February 15 and 17. Mr. Weiner was also soloist in the John Corigliano Oboe Concerto with the Oklahoma Symphony Orchestra, Ainslee Cox conducting, on October 17 and 19. In a letter, Mr. Weiner describes the work as
"an oboe concerto, not a wind instrument concerto. By the end of it, you have heard everything that can be done with the oboe -- flutter-tongue, glissando, multiphonics, long sustained melodies, an intense aria, and even Arabic oboe sounds. The work is in five movements and runs about 26 minutes. The first movement is a tuning game which plays on the idea of the oboe tuning each section of the orchestra and then in virtuoso fashion misleads them. When the orchestra returns to A, the oboe mischievously sounds a B-flat, before the final return to A. The second movement is a song, very long, slow and sustained past what the audience would conceive of as the endurance limit. The third movement is a scherzo for oboe and percussion with virtuoso writing for all; the fourth movement is a dramatic aria in an inverted arch form so that the most intense passages are at the bottom of the range. The final movement is the Rhieta Dance. This movement calls upon the oboist's showmanship and ends with a rousing finale."
(An account of Bert Lucarelli's premiere performance of this concerto appeared in TTWO, Vol. IV, No. 1).
BASIL REEVE, associate principal oboist of the Minnesota Orchestra performed the Strauss Concerto with the orchestra under Klaus Tennstedt on February 5. "With his sweet, pure tone, fluent technique, and polished phrasing, Reeve made the most of the musical charms of his part, and the entire performance was an exceptionally clean, sensitively adjusted whole." Another reviewer found "Reeve's finger facility boundless (as was his breath) and his phrases, even in the tricky second movement cadenza, were seamless and fluid. It was an elegant performance." . . . . before coming to the Minnesota Orchestra, Mr. Reeve was first oboist of the New York City Opera Orchestra and the Rotterdam Philharmonic.
BERT LUCARELLI presented an attractive recital of chamber music at the Alice Tully Hall in New York on January 29, featuring the Loeffler Rhapsodies, the Schumann Romances, the Mozart Quartet, K 370, and one of my great favorites, the Bliss Quintet, (which Mr. Lucarelli has recently recorded). Raymond Ericson of the New York Times commented on the work: "Except for some mild dissonance, it transcends its period, being a solidly created conservative work rather than one of particular originality. It was composed in 1927." Mr. Lucarelli's colleagues included the Manhattan Quartet, Thomas Hrynkiv, pianist and Raphael Hillyer, violist.
HEINZ HOLLIGER was soloist with the London Sinfonietta, Mark Elder conducting, at the Edinburgh International Festival on August 24. He performed the Telemann G Major Concerto for Oboe d'Amore, the Donizetti Concertino in G Major for Cor Anglais, and the Concerto in C for Oboe and ten instruments by Carl Maria von Weber . . . . .In a program note on Weber's composition, Holliger has written: "On November 10, 1811 Carl Maria von Weber's diary contains this entry: 'This evening I orchestrated an Adagio for Flad.' (Anton Flad was oboist in the Munich Orchestra, who has left behind him some works for oboe.) This Adagio for oboe, which has disappeared, is mentioned in the Jahns catalogue of Weber's works. Whether this is in fact the same as the solo part recently found in the archives of Prince Carl von Lowenstein-Wertheim which (albeit introduced by a later hand) carries the composer's name as C. M. von Weber, is in fact a work of Weber's is hard to decide. Although formally and harmonically the work is unusually simple to be consonant with Weber's style it rather points to a work of the dying eighteenth century. The unusual and refined instrumentation for solo oboe with one flute, two clarinets, two bassoons, two horns, trumpet, trombone, and a double bass lead one to believe the work not to be one of an everyday composer. There are striking similarities to Weber's wind writing, and the symphonies, both of which give the oboe a well-nigh soloistic task, permit us to suppose that it could be a youthful work of Weber's. Prince Carl von Lowenstein-Wertheim was very friendly with Weber, and was himself a dilettante oboist and composer."
JAMES MASON performed the Mozart Concerto, K. 314 with the Saskatoon Chamber Orchestra on November 14; he is the first oboist of the Saskatoon Symphony and a member of the faculty of the University of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada.
MALCOLM SMITH, principal oboist of the Indianapolis Symphony, performed a debut recital at Carnegie Recital Hall in New York in September. The program included works of Handel, Piston, CPE Bach, Saint-Saens, and Britten. The New York Times' Donal Henahan commented that "Mr. Smith's most obvious strengths were facile fingers and confidence in pushing quick tempos to breathtaking extremes . . . . in the Britten Metamorphoses, the oboist performed with technical authority and a sensitivity to their sharply contrasting moods. The able pianist was Roger Rundle."
RICHARD WOODHAMS, first oboist of the St. Louis Symphony, performed the Mozart Quartet, K. 370 at the 1975 Claremont Music Festival at Pomona College in Claremont California. He also performed Karl Kohn's Encounters IV for oboe and piano. In a letter he describes the work as one "with marvelously expressive passages, modest but effective use of multiphonics, and a short, evocative quote from Le Tombeau. It was written for the Dutch oboist Koen van Slogteren. Kohn has also just completed a work for my wife, who is a harpist and myself - Souvenirs II for oboe and harp. This is a work done in a very original, but nonetheless fairly diatonic harmonic scheme with a colorful and expansive musical atmosphere. The instrumental writing is superb and we were delighted to have this poetic work to add to our repertoire." These and other works by Kohn, including a woodwind quintet, are available from Carl Fischer Facsimile Edition, 56-62 Cooper Square, New York, New York 10023.
