Oboe Cds… endless amounts…
Ever since I worked for Tower Records while attending NEC in Boston, I’ve been an oboe CD fanatic. I probably own close to 400 CDs (originals), and probably 50 or 60 of them are oboe solos.
Some of my favorites:
Holliger - Bach Concertos (d minor, F major, and A major concertos)
John Mack - Oboe (Mozart Quartet, Loeffler, Britten, etc.)
Joe Robinson - New York Legends
John de Lancie - Strauss Concerto, etc.
Omar Zoboli - Mosaico Barocco (Bach little g minor sonata BWV 102?, Marcello, etc.)
Humbert Lucarelli - Strauss, Wolf Ferrari, Vaughn Williams concertos (and Barber Canzonetta)
Some Lesser known Cds are probably
Marcel Tabuteau - Mozart Quartet
Albrecht Mayer - Romantic Oboe Concertos
John de Lancie - Marcello Oboe Concerto on Build your Baby’s Brain
John Ferrillo - Mozart Quartet on Musical Evenings with the Captain vol. II
But my all-time favorite oboe CD hands down goes to…
Alex Klein - Fantasies and Partitas by Bach and Telemann
This CD is by far, the best oboe CD I have ever heard. Not only does Alex Klein show off his technically and physically mastery of the instrument, he shows tonal colors, note/phrase groupings, and inflections which are so ridiculously controlled that it’s an amazing level of quality any oboist should strive for. If I was stuck on an island with a CD player, unlimited amounts of AA batteries, and one CD, this would definitely be it.
Now, I know there are a LOT of great oboe CDs, but for my small collection, these are the ones I just keep coming back to time and time again.
You’re probably looking at this list as saying, “Where are all the European players?” and I’ll be honest. Albrecht Mayer’s CD is on here, as are a couple of Holliger’s CDs, but I can’t get over the “whaa whaa” vibrato that European players often bring with them. The vibrato is often so wide, that I feel the tonal center is lost and therefore it’s too distracting to the music.
If you’re American, you might be asking, “Where are all of Mack’s CDs and Douvas’ CDs?” I have them all, but the dark-covered Mack CD is definitely my favorite, and it always bothers me a lot when I hear both Mack and Douvas “chew the notes”. What I mean by this is that when they go to do a legato phrasing, they separate every note, even though it is legato, so it doesn’t sound silky smooth. I spent a lot of time posting about this on the Oboe Bboard here if you want to know what I’m talking about.
If you want to hear clips of some of these oboists, a good website is http://oboistgallery.8m.net/ . I helped gather 10 or so of the clips to demonstrate the wide variety of oboe styles.
