The oboe is a beautiful and a noble instrument, largely overlooked by big-name composers writing solo works. My new CD aims to address this imbalance. Have you ever wondered what the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto would sound like on an oboe? How about the Gershwin Piano Preludes? This is your chance to find out!
Music That SHOULD Have Been Written for the Oboe will be available for purchase on iTunes, CDBaby, and Amazon (and from me) on December 2, 2016. But you can pre-order right now on my website, and I will fulfill all orders during the week of November 28. Get it before anyone else!
Also, here’s a treat from the disc. The second of Gershwin’s Three Preludes is so gentle, so loving, so intimate, so passionate. I simply loved playing it with the great Paul Hamilton, and I hope you enjoy it here! Click to listen
“MUSIC THAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN WRITTEN FOR THE OBOE” JUST FOR THE RECORD…….(Now they are called CD’s)La belle Dame ….. Hath me in Thrall….Finally I received the recording of the oboe pieces performed by my peerless friend Jennet Ingle. These pieces, a delight in themselves in any concert, had been written for other instruments, but Jennet, in a moment, (actually many moments) of creative enthusiasm rearranged them for the oboe. Her own oboe. And she performed them in various venues, and I was fortunate enough to follow their creative evolution from the first performance to the completed CD.After I listened to the recording a couple of times I started, as I had intended, to listen to the music on their original instruments. So I traveled with Debussy to the island of Capri, very popular in his day, where, maybe he saw (and wooed) a girl with flaxen hair and Syrinx! The ancient pipe whose bucolic tunes he successfully recreated. But they sounded so much more natural on Jennet’s oboe; as if they belonged there…But the Mendelssohn violin concerto has a special place in the auditory space of my brain. When I was studying the violin as a young teenager, there was a girl, a couple of years older and much more advanced, who was practicing the concerto opening on her violin. I listened and expressed my admiration at both the piece and her playing. Next time I saw her she was practicing scales but when she saw me she started the Mendelssohn……I heard Jennet play her arrangement for the oboe a couple of times, in a couple of venues. I never cease to marvel, with envy, at the way Jennet tries and succeeds in reaching her desired, combined goal of technique and sonority.I truly enjoyed Bach’s violin sonata VI. All my life I have had a feeling that listening to Bach requires a certain amount of work. I really think, however that this sonata SHOULD have been written for the oboe.The Gershwin preludes brought me back to the familiar realities of the 20eth century.I was very impressed by the high technical quality of the recording. Even though I tried to listen I did n’ t hear any breathing referred to in Jennet’s earlier blog- only my own breath being taken away….Maybe I expected it, sort of, to hear some introductory remarks about the pieces, because I had heard Jennet Ingle do that in live performances before. A bit unconventional but not unheard of.Congratulations Jennet! We truly thank you. You have entered the holy temple. Approach the altar and officiate with Orpheus’ heirloom.