Paul WRANITZKY (1756-1808)
Concerto for Oboe in G (1780s?) [17:17]
Divertimento No. 6 in D (1788?) [15:14]
Divertimento No. 4 in G (1788?) [12:42]
Sinfonia concertante for Flute and Oboe in C, Op. 39 (1801?) [11:08]
Vilém Veverka (oboe)
Sylvie Schelingerová (flute)
Wranitzky Kapelle/Marek Štilec
rec. September-October 2021, Monastery of the Virgin Mary, Nová Říše, Czech Republic
ARCODIVA UP0235 [56:35]
Paul Wranitzky - I've also seen his given name as "Pavel" - could be a paradigm of the second-tier Classicist: a fine craftsman with a good sense for orchestral texture and colour and a decent melodic flair. The music is uniformly agreeable, though it lingers in the mind afterwards in a general way, rather than for any particular inspirations. A weakness is his very short-term, or short-winded, structural thinking. All three movements of the Oboe Concerto - even the seven-minutes-and-change opening - feel "too short"; others, around three minutes long, seem to end almost before they've begun.
The Concerto is firmly grounded, with a strong rhythmic drive. The ritornello of the short first movement somehow finds time to introduce two discrete themes; later, where you'd expect a cadenza, the music dashes straight on to the coda, apparently characteristic of Wranitzky's sonata-form concerto openings. The composer saves his cadenza for the appropriate spot in the dignified, graceful Adagio. The soloist launches the cheerful 6/8 Rondeau finale.
The two Divertimenti highlight musical dialogues between oboe and violin soloists. The opening Allegros both include an exposition repeat - odd, in such comparatively short movements - and both development sections move briefly into the darker minor. Elsewhere, the oboe, especially, gets its share of poised, gracious lyrical lines and delicate, almost cutesy staccato writing.
Vilém Veverka produces a bright, woolly tone - fuller than the familiar, similar Viennese sound - and his intonation is excellent. The fast passagework, whether staccato, legato, or curlicued, doesn't faze him - the Concerto's finale, which crams more and more notes into the established pulse, is dazzling. He and Jiří Sycha, the ensemble's leader, are equally adept in the Divertimenti, though Sycha almost inevitably, loses momentum in the finale of the G Major, while Veverka keeps it going. In the Sinfonia concertante, he and flutist Sylvie Schelingerová are beautifully matched in their thirds, and swap off their alternating moments of display with aplomb.
The sound is pleasing, though the ambient acoustic seems oddly chosen. It enhances the bloom of Veverka's strong upper range - the topmost notes hit the mikes a bit hard - and outfits the string body with a cushiony bass; but loses a sense of chamber intimacy, along with some clarity at peak moments. The annotator suggests that a sinfonia concertante was "a 'lighter' sibling to the symphony and concerto" - I guess Mozart and Haydn never got the memo.
Stephen Francis Vasta
stevedisque.wordpress.com/blog
