MusicWeb International One of the most grown-up review sites around 2024
60,000 reviews
... and still writing ...

Search MusicWeb Here Acte Prealable Polish CDs
 

Presto Music CD retailer
 
Founder: Len Mullenger                                    Editor in Chief:John Quinn             


Some items
to consider

new MWI
Current reviews

old MWI
pre-2023 reviews

paid for
advertisements

Acte Prealable Polish recordings

Forgotten Recordings
Forgotten Recordings
All Forgotten Records Reviews

TROUBADISC
Troubadisc Weinberg- TROCD01450

All Troubadisc reviews


FOGHORN Classics

Alexandra-Quartet
Brahms String Quartets

All Foghorn Reviews


All HDTT reviews


Songs to Harp from
the Old and New World


all Nimbus reviews



all tudor reviews


Follow us on Twitter


Editorial Board
MusicWeb International
Founding Editor
   
Rob Barnett
Editor in Chief
John Quinn
Contributing Editor
Ralph Moore
Webmaster
   David Barker
Postmaster
Jonathan Woolf
MusicWeb Founder
   Len Mullenger

REVIEW
BARGAIN OF THE MONTH


Advertising on
Musicweb


Donate and keep us afloat

 

New Releases

Naxos Classical
All Naxos reviews

Chandos recordings
All Chandos reviews

Hyperion recordings
All Hyperion reviews

Foghorn recordings
All Foghorn reviews

Troubadisc recordings
All Troubadisc reviews



all Bridge reviews


all cpo reviews

Divine Art recordings
Click to see New Releases
Get 10% off using code musicweb10
All Divine Art reviews


All Eloquence reviews

Lyrita recordings
All Lyrita Reviews

 

Wyastone New Releases
Obtain 10% discount

Subscribe to our free weekly review listing

 

 

 


MDT AmazonUK AmazonUS

Heinz Holliger Edition
Full contents listed at end of review
Rec. 1966-1991. ADD/DDD
BRILLIANT CLASSICS 94054 [10 CDs: 58:54 + 46:11 + 48:24 + 45:36 + 69:21 + 49:15 + 50:48 + 48:25 + 76:17 + 64:21]

Experience Classicsonline


 

 
Listening to solo woodwind instrument is in many ways similar to listening to the human voice. We can listen for pure beauty of tone if we wish but this on its own rapidly becomes dull unless there is also some individuality of phrasing and line. Only then can real musical communication take place with the listener. I have heard too many players (and singers) with enviable tone and technique whose performances nonetheless are essentially a nullity when it comes to communication. There have been however a number of great oboists in whose hands the instrument speaks with astonishing eloquence. For me one of the greatest is Heinz Holliger, whose tone and technique are beyond praise but whose greatest asset is his ability to characterise the music he plays and thereby to communicate directly with the listener.
 
Heinz Holliger was born in 1939 in Langenthal in Switzerland. As well as oboe, he studied piano and composition (with Boulez) although he is unfortunately not represented in this set as a composer. Also absent are any of the major compositions he has inspired from others which utilise his ability to make use of “extended techniques” on the oboe. What Brilliant have done is simply to put together a series of his recordings from 1966 to 1991 of more conventional oboe music. These range from Albinoni and Vivaldi to Martinu and Honegger. In no way does it give a balanced view of the oboe repertoire but it does include many real gems.
 
To start with the best. In the two discs devoted to the music of Mozart the phrasing, the interaction between players and the sheer joy in the music are all near ideal. Seldom since the wonderful Leon Goossens version has a performance of the Oboe Quartet had quite as much sheer wit and character. The Sinfonia Concertante for wind is included in the reconstruction by Robert Levin for flute, oboe, horn and bassoon rather than in the version usually played today for oboe, clarinet, bassoon and horn. The former is much more effective, especially as played here. The Divertimento K251 is a rare pleasure, but is also exceptionally enjoyable, especially when played with solo strings as it is here.
 
Discs 6 and 9 include - as well as the rather dull Concerto attributed to Haydn - a series of shorter works by such composers as Donizetti, Bellini, Moscheles and Hummel. These are essentially display pieces but are played here with a real understanding of their similarity to the vocal music of the period and of the opportunities this gives to the soloist to show off every possible bel canto effect. These discs also include an interesting Konzertstück by Julius Rietz, Sullivan’s composition teacher in Leipzig, and a Concerto by Josef Fiala which once again suggests that he was one of the dullest composers of the period. Arthur Benjamin’s wonderfully adept Concerto based on music by Cimarosa is given a particularly magical performance.
 
The last disc is devoted to music of the mid-twentieth century – Martin, Honegger and Martinu. This is full of surprisingly varied delights, although I could not help regretting the absence of by far the greatest oboe Concerto of that period, that of Richard Strauss. Holliger certainly recorded it and it would have fitted in well here.
 
The first five discs are devoted to music of the eighteenth century, one each for Vivaldi and Telemann and three for Albinoni. The Telemann disc is the real winner here - each of the five Concertos (four of them in minor keys) full of invention and played with real imagination and passion. The Vivaldi is also worth hearing, especially the double Concerto with bassoon (Klaus Thunemann) although I Musici, now in the context of modern period instrument groups, seem to play dully, heavily and without any especial insight. This is even more marked on the Albinoni discs which I found frankly dull. Worse still four of the Op. 7 Concertos are for strings alone, meaning that there is not even Holliger’s artistry to keep the listener’s interest alive. Whilst these discs might do for background listening I found it increasingly hard to pay real detailed attention to them.
 
Despite this, there is more than enough here to make this an unmissable bargain overall. As if the musical content were not enough, Brilliant have provided a 19 page essay by Susan Wynne Roberts and Ates Orga which gives admirable notes on the soloist and the music – a model of how such reissues should be presented. Taken as a whole this is a worthy tribute to a great oboist who is – above all – a great musician.
 

John Sheppard
 

 

Full contents list
(all with Heinz Holliger, oboe and cor anglais)
CD 1
Antonio VIVALDI (1678-1741) Concerto in C RV452 [6:23]; Concerto in D minor RV454 [8:17]; Concerto in G RV545 [10:03]; Concerto in C RV446 [8:48]; Concerto in A minor RV463 [9:31]; Concerto in C RV447 [14:33]
Klaus Thunemann (bassoon) (RV545): I Musici; recorded in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland in July 1975 and August 1981
CD 2
Georg Philipp TELEMANN (1681-1767) Concerto in E minor [11:24]; Concerto in D minor [8:43]; Concerto in C minor [9:15]; Concerto in F minor [7:37]; Concerto in D [8:42]
Academy of St Martin in the Fields; Iona Brown (director): recorded in London in November 1981
CDs 3-4
Tomaso ALBINONI (1671-1751) Concertos Op 7 No 1 in D [3:56]; No 2 in C [4:29]; No 3 in B flat [8:00]; No 4 in G [7:22]; No 5 in C [4:56]; No 6 in D [7:15]; No 7 in A [5:07]; No 8 in D [6:00]; No 9 in F [6:09]; No 10 in B flat [5:59]; No 11 in C [6:41]; No 12 in C [8:08]; Sonatas a cinque Op 2 No 5 in D [8:20]; No 6 in G minor [7:29]
Maurice Bourgue (oboe); I Musici: recorded in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland 1990-1991
CD 5
Concertos Op 9 No 2 in D minor [12:22]; No 3 in C [11:52]; No 5 in C [10:23]; No 8 in G minor [11:02]; No 9 in C [11:02]; No 11 in B flat [11:38]
Maurice Bourgue (oboe); I Musici: recorded in Italy 1966-7
CD 6
Joseph HAYDN (1732-1809) Oboe Concerto in C Hob.VIIg:C1 [22:48]; Arthur BENJAMIN (1893-1960) Oboe Concerto in D minor on themes by Domenico CIMAROSA (1749-1801) [10:11]; Gaetano DONIZETTI (1797-1848) Concertino for Cor Anglais [10:54]; Andante sostenuto for oboe and harp [3:32]
Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, David Zinman; Ursula Holliger (harp): recorded 1986-9
CDs 7-8
Wolfgang Amadeus MOZART
(1756-1791) Oboe Quartet in F k370[17:23]; Adagio in D K580a [5:48]; Divertimento No 11 in D K251 [27:19]; Sinfonia Concertante in Eb K297b [28:22]; Oboe Concerto in C K314[19:44]
Orlando Quartet; Hermann Baumann, Michel Gasciarrino (horns); Henk Guldemond (double bass): recorded Enkhuizen, The Netherlands and elsewhere in 1984
CD 9
Vincenzo BELLINI (1801-1835) Oboe Concerto in E flat [6:28]; Bernard MOLIQUE (1802-1869) Oboe Concertino in G minor [14:49]; Ignaz MOSCHELES (1794-1870) Concertante in G for flute and oboe [14:05]; Julius RIETZ (1812-1877) Konzertstück in F minor Op 33 [13:42]; Josef FIALA (1748-1816) Concerto for cor anglais in E flat [11:13]; Johann Nepomuk HUMMEL (1778-1837) Adagio, theme and variations in F minor [14:37]
Aurèle Nicolet (flute); Radio-Symphonie-Orchester Frankfurt, Eliahu Inbal (conductor); English Chamber Orchestra, Raymond Leppard (conductor): recorded in London in November 1968 and in Germany in August 1975
CD 10
Frank MARTIN (1890-1974) Trois Danses [17:06]; Petite complainte [3:58]; Pièce Brève [2:20]; Arthur HONEGGER (1892-1955) Concerto da camera [17:11]; Petite Suite [2:45]; Antigone [2:40]; Bohuslav MARTINU (1890-1959) Oboe Concerto [17:20]
Ursula Holliger (harp); Aurèle Nicolet (flute); John Constable (piano); Academy of St Martin in the Fields; Sir Neville Marriner (conductor): recorded in St John’s, Smith Square, London in October 1991


 

 

 

 

 



 


EXPLORE MUSICWEB INTERNATIONAL

Making a Donation to MusicWeb

Writing CD reviews for MWI

About MWI
Who we are, where we have come from and how we do it.

Site Map

How to find a review

How to find articles on MusicWeb
Listed in date order

Review Indexes
   By Label
      Select a label and all reviews are listed in Catalogue order
   By Masterwork
            Links from composer names (eg Sibelius) are to resource pages with links to the review indexes for the individual works as well as other resources.

Themed Review pages

Jazz reviews

 

Discographies
   Composer
      Composer surveys
   National
      Unique to MusicWeb -
a comprehensive listing of all LP and CD recordings of given works
.
Prepared by Michael Herman

The Collector’s Guide to Gramophone Company Record Labels 1898 - 1925
Howard Friedman

Book Reviews

Complete Books
We have a number of out of print complete books on-line

Interviews
With Composers, Conductors, Singers, Instumentalists and others
Includes those on the Seen and Heard site

Nostalgia

Nostalgia CD reviews

Records Of The Year
Each reviewer is given the opportunity to select the best of the releases

Monthly Best Buys
Recordings of the Month and Bargains of the Month

Comment
Arthur Butterworth Writes

An occasional column

Phil Scowcroft's Garlands
British Light Music articles

Classical blogs
A listing of Classical Music Blogs external to MusicWeb International

Reviewers Logs
What they have been listening to for pleasure

Announcements

 

Community
Bulletin Board

Give your opinions or seek answers

Reviewers
Past and present

Helpers invited!

Resources
How Did I Miss That?

Currently suspended but there are a lot there with sound clips


Composer Resources

British Composers

British Light Music Composers

Other composers

Film Music (Archive)
Film Music on the Web (Closed in December 2006)

Programme Notes
For concert organizers

External sites
British Music Society
The BBC Proms
Orchestra Sites
Recording Companies & Retailers
Online Music
Agents & Marketing
Publishers
Other links
Newsgroups
Web News sites etc

PotPourri
A pot-pourri of articles

MW Listening Room
MW Office

Advice to Windows Vista users  
Questionnaire    
Site History  
What they say about us
What we say about us!
Where to get help on the Internet
CD orders By Special Request
Graphics archive
Currency Converter
Dictionary
Magazines
Newsfeed  
Web Ring
Translation Service

Rules for potential reviewers :-)
Do Not Go Here!
April Fools






Untitled Document


Reviews from previous months
Join the mailing list and receive a hyperlinked weekly update on the discs reviewed. details
We welcome feedback on our reviews. Please use the Bulletin Board
Please paste in the first line of your comments the URL of the review to which you refer.