Oboe concertos

[MickyD]

My personal favourites are the two by CPE Bach. I have a nice version by Ku Ebbinge with Ton Koopman, and they add a very pleasant oboe sonata for good measure.

[RichardB]

Ferneyhough - Allgebrah

Now you're talking.

I'd forgotten about that one, also the one by Bernd Alois Zimmermann (1952).

[Opinionated Knowall]

The story of how it came about is often told, with oboist John de Lancie turning up at Strauss's home during the US Army's occupation of Bavaria and asking him whether he'd ever consider writing a concerto for oboe, which he duly did, assigning the rights for the first US performance to de Lancie, who had to give them to someone else because he was only a junior member of the Philadelphia Orchestra at the time. (He didn't play it until 1964 in the end.) In the "not many people know this" category is the fact that de Lancie's son, also John, not only played a recurring character in Star Trek but (I found very recently) is also an opera librettist.

Another charming concertante work for oboe, which John de Lancie recorded (was he the dedicatee? Commissioner?) is L'horloge de flore by Jean Francaix. Also Thea Musgrave wrote the terrific Helios.

[Bryn]

Let's not forget Feldman's Oboe and Orchestra:

[Pulcinella]

I'd forgotten about the Strauss (which I have with Manfred Clement/Staatskapelle Dresden/Kempe) and the Rawsthorne (I have that Naxos CD!).

And again: got my Hindemith concertos and sonatas mixed up!

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Elliot Carter's Oboe Concerto is an interesting case. The highest note on an oboe is generally accepted as G on the 4th ledger line. So Elliot Carter began his oboe concerto on the A above that!

[Pulcinella]

Elliot Carter's Oboe Concerto is an interesting case. The highest note on an oboe is generally accepted as G on the 4th ledger line. So Elliot Carter began his oboe concerto on the A above that!

Oh no! Another one on the shelves that I'd forgotten about.

[RichardB]

The highest note on an oboe is generally accepted as G on the 4th ledger line. So Elliot Carter began his oboe concerto on the A above that!

Yes but of course he wouldn't have done if Holliger hadn't told him it was possible. And then there's this that goes up to C...

[Barbirollians]

Martinu

[pastoralguy]

Has anyone mentioned Ruth Gipps’ Oboe Concerto? I ordered a cd from Chandos and received a promotional disc which includes an extract. Sounds very interesting.

Juliana Koch, oboe. BBC Philharmonic conducted by Rumon Gamba.

[cloughie]

Alan Rawsthorne (composed in 1947)
Naxos 8.554763/Stéphane Rancourt/RSNO/David Lloyd-Jones)

Helios CDH55019
Rutland Boughton Concerto for Oboe and Strings No. 1 in C
(Sarah Francis/RPO/Handley, c/w Symphony No. 3 in B Minor)

I was informed of these by a former forum friend - never ‘eared ‘em so can’t vouch for how good they are! Probably fine as I trust his choices (mostly)!

[ahinton]

Elliot Carter's Oboe Concerto is an interesting case. The highest note on an oboe is generally accepted as G on the 4th ledger line. So Elliot Carter began his oboe concerto on the A above that!

At some point in the latter 1930s (I believe), Elliott Carter (who played the oboe himself) began work on a cor anglé concerto but seems to have abandoned it never to return to it; I don't know if what he did write of it remains in existence. Whether he recalled this more than 60 years later when writing what was then called Dialogues for piano and orchestra (now Dialogues I for those forces) I also do not know but although the pianist is obviously the soloist in it, the work begins with a cor anglé solo...

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Yes but of course he wouldn't have done if Holliger hadn't told him it was possible. And then there's this that goes up to C...

I’m not suggesting Carter was wrong, but such a decision could have the practical disadvantage of discouraging the work’s wider use.

[Joseph K]

I’m not suggesting Carter was wrong, but such a decision could have the practical disadvantage of discouraging the work’s wider use.

But composers have been stretching what's practical for hundreds of years!

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

But composers have been stretching what's practical for hundreds of years!

They have indeed, and it has encouraged the development of newer and better instruments.