{"id":43692,"date":"2017-03-15T20:47:49","date_gmt":"2017-03-16T00:47:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/?p=43692"},"modified":"2017-03-15T20:47:49","modified_gmt":"2017-03-16T00:47:49","slug":"record-keeping-albrecht-mayer-its-all-in-the-oboes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2017\/03\/15\/record-keeping-albrecht-mayer-its-all-in-the-oboes\/","title":{"rendered":"RECORD KEEPING | It’s All In The Oboes"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"VOCALISE:
VOCALISE: Works by Bach, Handel, Ravel, Schumann, Mozart, and others. Albrecht Mayer, oboe, oboe d\u2019amore & english horn. Sinfonia Varsovia; Academy of St. Martin in the Fields; Mahler Chamber Orchestra. DG 479 6843. Total Time: 76:33.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When I was a young man, I used to pride myself on being able to tell one orchestra from another on recordings. For me, the distinguishing feature was the sound of the oboes. John de Lancie, principal oboist of the Philadelphia Orchestra had a distinctive big sound, as did Harold Gomberg with the NY Philharmonic, Ralph Gomberg (Harold\u2019s brother), with the Boston Symphony and Ray Still with the Chicago Symphony. In Europe the two orchestras making most of the recordings in the 1950s were the Berlin Philharmonic (BPO) and the Vienna Philharmonic (VPO). The Berlin oboes had a distinctive, almost vocal purity \u2014 Lothar Koch perhaps best exemplified this sound \u2014 while the Vienna oboes were woody and dry. Although these distinguishing oboe features are not nearly as pronounced in most of those orchestras today as they were years ago, the Vienna oboe sound has not changed a bit. The Vienna Philharmonic, known for its respect of tradition, consciously aims to maintain the same sound it always had.<\/p>\n

These thoughts came to mind when I learned that the BPO had mounted a special exhibition, \u201cThe Oboists of the Berliner Philharmoniker\u201d, honouring the oboists who have played in the orchestra over the years, in the foyer of the Philharmonie hall where it performs. One of the most distinguished oboists in the orchestra\u2019s history was Helmut Schl\u00f6vogt, who played in the BPO from 1941 to 1974. The exhibition includes a collection of mouthpieces from Schl\u00f6vogt\u2019s estate and the tools oboists need to makes their reeds. For more on the exhibition visit the orchestra\u2019s website<\/a>.<\/p>\n

For many years the BPO has had not one, but two principals, for almost every section of the orchestra. At the present time, the two oboe principals are Albrecht Mayer and Jonathan Kelly. Mayer has been featured on many recent Deutsche Grammophon recordings and the present CD is a compilation of excerpts from some of them with repertoire ranging from Bach (1685-1750) to Julius Weismann (1879-1950). The music is well-chosen to show off Mayer\u2019s artistry in a variety of instrumental and vocal settings. Mayer\u2019s switching from oboe to oboe d-amore to cor anglais in different pieces also helps to hold the listener\u2019s interest. Unfortunately, the CD booklet is not entirely accurate as to which instrument is used in which piece. For the record, Albrecht Mayer plays an oboe built by Gebr\u00fcder M\u00f6nnig, Markneukirchen and uses BAI reeds.<\/p>\n

Anyone listening to this recording for more than a few minutes will be struck by the singing, flutelike tone that is characteristic of Mayer\u2019s playing and which has been an attribute of oboe players in the BPO for a very long time. Mayer, who studied with the great French oboist, Marcel Bourque, emphasizes the French influence on his playing and believes that the preferred oboe sound today is more beautiful than it was in the past: \u201cIf you listen to old oboe recordings, you\u2019ll find that they sounded very acidic, very thin, a little aggressive.\u201d<\/p>\n

For me, one of the highlights on this disc is Mayer\u2019s own arrangement of Mozart\u2019s concert aria \u201cMa che vi fece,\u201d K. 368. At his most virtuosic here, Mayer is given a stylish and precise accompaniment by Abbado and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra. Another winner is Pavane pour une infant d<\/em>\u00e9funte<\/em>, in an exquisite arrangement for oboe and chamber orchestra by Chris Hazell, which is almost as good as the original by Ravel. Similarly, the Pavane<\/em> Op. 50 by Faur\u00e9 with Mayer playing oboe d\u2019amore, and Debussy\u2019s Clair de lune<\/em>\u00a0\u2014 also Hazell arrangements \u2014 are lovely. The \u201cChildren\u2019s Prayer\u201d from Humperdinck\u2019s Hansel and Gretel<\/em>, with the King\u2019s Singers taking the vocal lines and Mayer providing an oboe obbligato in an arrangement by Joachim Schmeisser, is heartbreakingly beautiful.<\/p>\n

Finally, there are some original oboe pieces, among them Schumann\u2019s Romance<\/em> Op. 94 No. 2 which Mayer plays seamlessly, and with a freedom of expression that seems to me just about ideal.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, there is no contemporary music in this compilation. Surely some appropriate music by living composers could have been found. That said this is \u2014 on the whole \u2014 a well-chosen selection of compositions just about flawlessly executed by one of the foremost oboists of our time.<\/p>\n

For more RECORD KEEPING, see HERE<\/u><\/a><\/span>.<\/h3>\n

#LUDWIGVAN<\/i><\/b><\/h3>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Albrecht Mayer offers a well-chosen selection of compositions near flawlessly executed by one of the foremost oboists of our time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":43713,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[6439,77,5739,51,52],"tags":[9499,2454],"yst_prominent_words":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2017\/03\/1280x1280.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9bakr-bmI","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43692"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43692"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43692\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43715,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43692\/revisions\/43715"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43713"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43692"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43692"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43692"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=43692"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}