This is a first-class player who has put together an
attractive compilation of works largely unknown to those whose main
awareness of the oboe, is centred on the first 'organised' note given
by a player to his or her orchestral colleagues before a concert. Jeffrey
Agrell's two versions of the Blues number he wrote for Ms Doherty
four years apart, the first unaccompanied the last version accompanied
by piano is a delightful start and conclusion to the disc, wittily constructed,
complete with clarinet type 'bending' notes such as those found at the
opening of Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue. Her playing exudes enthusiasm
and life, a wonderfully agile, elfin-like figure springs to mind, and
lo and behold there she is doe-eyed and diminutive but a packed-with-energy
figure. If you don't believe the last description, listen to the end
of track eleven, it'll scare the living daylights out of you every time
you hear it. I'll say no more except to compliment the composer of this
pair of tracks, Ross Edwards, on his marvellously inventive writing.
Daniel Schnyder's easy-going, accessible harmonic language is
embodied in his sonata, four compactly constructed movements which lead
the listener towards the more substantial works on the disc by Jolivet
and the conductor-composer Antal Dorati. The former's very French,
almost Poulencian style is warmly played and lovingly shaped by this
talented musician, now based in her native Australia as principal oboe
with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra after high-profile posts in European
orchestras. She is technically very fine, highly assured and one of
those oboists who mercifully does not take great gasps between phrases
(which usually compels their audiences to gasp for breath too). Dorati,
who wrote his oboe compositions for Heinz Holliger, makes much of his
Hungarian origins in his five pieces which each tell a different story,
like folksongs for the oboe. With their Bartokian pentatonicism and
modal melodies, Diana Doherty plays them utterly convincingly, evoking
disparate images of a cricket and an ant, caressing her oboe in sound
as it writes a love-letter, and concluding with literally a spoken and
played magical sleight of hand.
For aficionados of the oboe and for those keen to get
better acquainted with what the instrument can do I cannot recommend
this disc highly enough - oh and don't forget what I said about the
end of track eleven (Haydn's Symphony No. 94, second movement? - you
ain't heard nothing yet!)
Christopher Fifield
Diana Doherty (oboe)