Classical Double Reed Recommendations

[Late]

I was wondering if you all could recommend some classical CDs where a double reed instrument is featured. Oboe, English horn (cor anglais), bassoon, contrabassoon, etc.

I'm open to all periods of classical music, but don't particularly want to hear music from the "baroque" these days.

Thanks!

[David Ayers]

I was wondering if you all could recommend some classical CDs where a double reed instrument is featured. Oboe, English horn (cor anglais), bassoon, contrabassoon, etc.

I'm open to all periods of classical music, but don't particularly want to hear music from the "baroque" these days.

Thanks!

I've never been to hear an oboe concerto, and the only non-baroque one that seems to get done with any kind of regularity in concert is that of Strauss. On disk it sometimes appears with oboe works by Martinu and Francaix which I don't think much of, and indeed I am not so fond of the Strauss but it stands up if you like it.

On the modern front there is the Elliott Carter oboe concerto, good enough but maybe not the most important Carter. There are three oboe concertos by Bruno Maderna, who should have earned some special plaudit (other than his legendary status) for service to oboe and orchestra. There is also music for oboe and orchestra by Wolfgang Rihm but I don't know it. I've noticed a few around by conservative composers but don't know them (even if I have heard them, I can't remember them!).

Wind quintets meet your bill quite well, I think, since they usually have oboe and bassoon. People often mention the Nielsen, I'd pick out those by Ligeti, and quite a few composers have had a go (notably Hindemith and Schoenberg). Depends how much wind quintet you can stand (in my case not too much).

That's what comes to mind for now...

Edited to add: I guess Stravinsky's Symphonies of Wind Instruments would go a long way to satisfy you in this vein, too.

Edited February 9, 2010 by David Ayers

[Late]

On the modern front there is the Elliott Carter oboe concerto, good enough but maybe not the most important Carter. There are three oboe concertos by Bruno Maderna, who should have earned some special plaudit (other than his legendary status) for service to oboe and orchestra. There is also music for oboe and orchestra by Wolfgang Rihm but I don't know it.

People often mention the Nielsen, I'd pick out those by Ligeti, and quite a few composers have had a go (notably Hindemith and Schoenberg). Depends how much wind quintet you can stand (in my case not too much).

Thanks, David. I'm familiar with Carter, Maderna, and Rihm (but really only their work for string quartet), a little Nielsen (the symphonies), and Ligeti (string quartet), but have only heard Carter's work for oboe (there's an excellent disc on ECM titled Lauds and Laments with Heinz Holliger on oboe). I'll look into the other composers' work for oboe. What labels? (Montaigne?)

Any other recs out there?

[David Ayers]

On the modern front there is the Elliott Carter oboe concerto, good enough but maybe not the most important Carter. There are three oboe concertos by Bruno Maderna, who should have earned some special plaudit (other than his legendary status) for service to oboe and orchestra. There is also music for oboe and orchestra by Wolfgang Rihm but I don't know it.

People often mention the Nielsen, I'd pick out those by Ligeti, and quite a few composers have had a go (notably Hindemith and Schoenberg). Depends how much wind quintet you can stand (in my case not too much).

Thanks, David. I'm familiar with Carter, Maderna, and Rihm (but really only their work for string quartet), a little Nielsen (the symphonies), and Ligeti (string quartet), but have only heard Carter's work for oboe (there's an excellent disc on ECM titled Lauds and Laments with Heinz Holliger on oboe). I'll look into the other composers' work for oboe. What labels? (Montaigne?)

Any other recs out there?

The Carter is on a Warner Apex issue, if it isn't on the ECM, all three Maderna are on a Col Legno disk, and the single Rihm piece is on Haenssler along with other of his orchestral works. Both Ligeti wind quartets appear on a Sony disk along with his Horn Trio (a major work in Ligeti's oeuvre and a 'must hear'), I guess just any Nielsen would do (I have it on a BBC Music Magazine disk). The Hindemith Kleine Kammermusik can be heard on any collection of his 1920s (otherwise more orchestral) Kammermusik such as the invaluable double by Chailly on Decca (a key recording, probably) and I also have it alongside the Schoenberg on a Koch disk which is probably OOP but might float back in some form. I guess you know the Stravinsky but I'll mention anyway I like the version on the Boulez disk with Symphony of Psalms on DG. After I posted I remember that Ligeti also has a concerto for Flute and Oboe (nothing that Shank and Cooper would have come up with!) and I remembered one piece with major cor anglais part (ta da!) which is James Macmillan's The World's Ransoming (there's an LSO Live disk of that). I also recalled that Magnus Lindberg's Cantigas has a major part for Oboe, and is available on a mighty Sony disk which I see is going for $7.99 on amazon.com and, while you maybe only need two of the four works recorded on that disk, is probably worth dropping in your basket. I won't say this is absolutely essential music but the recordings with the Philharmonia conducted by Esa Pekka Salonen are rich and vivid. In both the Macmillan and Lindberg pieces the reed player is credited but is not a concertante soloist, so stays inside the orchestra and is recorded accordingly (i.e. not in close up).

I'm with you on the Ligeti, Carter and Rihm String Quartets. I collected the Rihm series on Col Legno avidly and would say to anyone to snap up the Arditti double of Carter on Etcetera (there is an alternative pair of disks on Naxos which is also well reviewed). While I guess I don't love the first Ligeti quartet I'd still say to anyone else reading this to pick up the Arditti version on Sony (I guess this is what you have) while it is still around and inexpensive (although there are other versions which are all recommended, and the other works on the Sony disk are early and not necessary, so shouldn't be a factor in selecting a version), and I'd throw in for good measure Aimard's recording of (most of) the Etudes in that same Sony series, again while it is still around and cheap.

I'm aware on this board you are mainly likely to be telling people stuff they already know but your question tempted me to chip in. So please excuse all parts of this which are a lesson in egg-sucking!

[Larry Kart]

Recently bought the disc with the Rihm work; it's excellent. In the pastoral English vein, William Alwyn's 12-minute "Autumn Legend" for English horn and strings is worth checking out unless you find that idiom too bland and/or pictorial:

http://www.amazon.com/Alwyn-Angelica-Pastoral-Fantasia-Interlude/dp/B000000APK/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1265813853&sr=1-1

There's also an Alwyn concerto for oboe and harp, but I haven't heard it:

http://www.amazon.com/Alwyn-Concerto-Oboe-Strings-Grossos/dp/B00117QWSU/ref=pd_sim_dmt_dmusic_2

[David Ayers]

There are quite a few British concertos and chamber works for oboe (I'm listening to Bliss's Oboe Quintet as I write - see what you did to me!). These seem often to have been commissioned by or written for Leon Goossens. That explains why there is such a cluster in mid-C20th British music. These crop up in recordings on Naxos, Chandos and Lyrita. I've got a few here mainly on Naxos CD but I don't love this period of British music too much so haven't really absorbed them.

While I was thinking about it I recalled sonatas by Hindemith for both Oboe and Cor Anglais, which can be found on an MDG disk.

Edited February 10, 2010 by David Ayers

[Larry Kart]

There are quite a few British concertos and chamber works for oboe (I'm listening to Bliss's Oboe Quintet as I write - see what you did to me!). These seem often to have been commissioned by or written for Leon Goossens. That explains why there is such a cluster in mid-C20th British music....

And Evelyn Rothwell, John Barbirolli's second wife:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evelyn_Barbirolli

[David Ayers]

There are quite a few British concertos and chamber works for oboe (I'm listening to Bliss's Oboe Quintet as I write - see what you did to me!). These seem often to have been commissioned by or written for Leon Goossens. That explains why there is such a cluster in mid-C20th British music....

And Evelyn Rothwell, John Barbirolli's second wife:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evelyn_Barbirolli

Yes! I am listening now to the Rawsthorne concerto which was comissioned for her.

[A Lark Ascending]

Have a look here for some of Hyperion's oboe discs:

http://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/find.asp?f=oboe

The 20thC British discs vary from the bucolic to the neo-classical.

There's a very nice Vaughan Williams oboe concerto which sounds exactly as you would expect it to. I have it on this disc:

I don't know this one, but it looks interesting (especially in the light of the discussion above):

Elizabeth MACONCHY (1907-1994) Quintet for Oboe and Strings (1932) [11:21]

Arthur BLISS (1891-1975) Quintet for Oboe and String Quartet (1926) [21:26]

Benjamin BRITTEN (1913-1976) Phantasy Quartet for Oboe and Strings (1932) [14:08]

Dorothy GOW (1893-1982) Oboe Quintet in One movement (1936) [14:00]

E.J. MOERAN (1894-1950) Fantasy Quartet (1946) [13:27]

In fact you might find this webpage of interest:

http://images.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://www.oboeclassics.com/RenaissanceCD.JPG&imgrefurl=http://www.oboeclassics.com/catalogue.htm&usg=__a5y6J0Kt_fbEzwzH8yMxXLM8DK4=&h=280&w=280&sz=26&hl=en&start=3&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=T2mwRLCGmSfXjM:&tbnh=114&tbnw=114&prev=/images%3Fq%3Doboe%2Bgoossens%26hl%3Den%26rlz%3D1T4DSGI_en-GB___GB343%26sa%3DN%26um%3D1

Edited February 10, 2010 by Bev Stapleton

[randyhersom]

Delius (am I thinking of On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring?), Sibelius (Swan of Tuonela) and Aho (Quintet)

[MomsMobley]

hindemith

gubaidulina

 

Edited December 22, 2015 by MomsMobley