(Editor's note.- I am grateful to Sharon Possick for these items.)
The fall of 1984 marked many performances of interest in Philadelphia for the oboe. On September 21, 1984, the Philadelphia Orchestra's first concert of the 1984-85 season opened with the Mozart Oboe Concerto, K. 314, with Richard Woodhams, the Orchestra's principal oboist since 1977, as soloist and Riccardo Muti, its Music Director, conducting. Daniel Webster of the Philadelphia Inquirer wrote:
Muti used an ensemble of 35 to perform the work and the orchestra was as agile and pointed in its playing as the soloist. Both managed a balance between playing what sounded like highly informed singing and almost scholarly precision. The sense of dialogue was operatic. Statement and comment, proposal and answer, the oboe and orchestra seemed to be letting us eavesdrop on a lighthearted conversation.
Woodhams' playing is expressive and he produces a sound like that of a singer who makes her sound well forward in the mouth and face. The playing set a different mood in each movement, and in the last movement, the recurring theme grew and took on a different voice with each reappearance. He had written his own cadenzas for all three movements - the middle movement's being only a brief flourish - to stress the instrument's flexibility and songfulness.
In addition to his position in the orchestra, Richard Woodhams is on the faculty of Temple University and The New School of Music. This fall, he had the opportunity to attend concerto performances by three of his students from Temple and The New School.
On October 14, 1984, Cynthia Koledo DeAlmeida performed the Bach Concerto in C Minor for Violin and Oboe, BWV, 1060, with the Concerto Soloists of Philadelphia. Max Rudolf, Conductor Laureate of the group, conducted the concert, and Emmanuelle Boisvert played the violin. Cynthia received her Bachelor of Music degree in 1981 from the University of Michigan and her Master of Music degree from Temple University in 1983.
On November 2, 1984, Robert Walters, first place winner of The New School of Music Concerto Competition, performed the Cimarosa Concerto for Oboe and Strings with The New School of Music Orchestra conducted by Tamara Brooks. Robert is in his junior year of study with Mr. Woodhams at The New School of Music.
On November 13, 1984, Sharon Possick performed Framcaix "L'Horloge de Flore, "for Oboe and Orchestra with the Philadelphia Orchestra on the first Philadelphia Orchestra Senior Student Concert of the 1984-85 season. Sharon, who performed the Framcaix as a winner of the Philadelphia Orchestra Senior Student Competition, is currently in her fifth year of study with Mr. Woodhams at Temple University, where she is completing her Master's degree in music.
On January 23, 1985, Richard Woodhams and his colleague Louis Rosenblatt, who is the English hornist of the Philadelphia Orchestra, performed the Handel - R.G. Rosenblatt Concerto for Oboe, English Horn, Strings and Continuo, commemorating the 300th anniversary of the composer's birth. Mr. Rosenblatt's wife, Renate, wrote the concerto arrangement from duets from three Handel operas. William Smith conducted.
The final Philadelphia Orchestra Senior Student Concert, again conducted by William Smith, also used an oboe soloist. On April 17, 1985, the Mozart Sinfionia Concertante, KV. 482, was performed by the Philadelphia Orchestra with competition winners Roger Wiesmeyer, oboe; John Warren, clarinet; David Baughman, bassoon; and Susan Carroll, horn. Roger Wiesmeyer is a student of John de Lancie and is currently in his third year of study at the Curtis Institute of Music.
John de Lancie, former principal oboist of the Philadelphia Orchestra, also performed the Mozart Sinfonia Concertante, on January 7, 1985. Accompanied by the Concerto Soloists of Philadelphia with Max Rudolf conducting, the other performers included Donald Montanaro, clarinet; Mason Jones, horn; and Sol Schoenbach, a familiar name to the IDRS, bassoon.