Oboe Scales & Arpeggios

Antonio Pasculli (1842-1924) was part of an obscure generation of 19th century Italian wind virtuosos whose music, though popular in his own time, faded as the 20th century approached. Audiences then (as now) preferred the piano or the violin or cello as the instrument of choice in the field of the solo concerto. Composing works (sonatas, concertos, etc.) for wind instruments became mostly an Italian mode, the province of composers who drew from the rich thematic material provided by the opera. The wind repertoire thus became filled with fantasias on themes from the operas of Rossini, Bellini, and Donizetti, and were often preferred by the Italian public over solo vocal adaptations.

Antonio Pasculli (1842-1924) was part of an obscure generation of 19th century Italian wind virtuosos whose music, though popular in his own time, faded as the 20th century approached. Audiences then (as now) preferred the piano or the violin or cello as the instrument of choice in the field of the solo concerto. Composing works (sonatas, concertos, etc.) for wind instruments became mostly an Italian mode, the province of composers who drew from the rich thematic material provided by the opera. The wind repertoire thus became filled with fantasias on themes from the operas of Rossini, Bellini, and Donizetti, and were often preferred by the Italian public over solo vocal adaptations.

From the pipe organ at the Sono Luminus studio in Boyce, Virginia, we are pleased to present a fine selection of baroque organ music for the Christmas season. Felipe Dominguez (b. 1983) is a Chilean/American organist, harpsichordist, clavichordist and musicologist. A graduate of Brigham Young University (B.M. 2010, M.M. 2012), he studied organ and harpsichord with Douglas Bush and Don Cook. He has pursued further postgraduate organ instruction in Europe with Edoardo Belotti, Hans Davidsson, Harald Vogel, and Leon Berben. Mr. Dominguez has performed as a soloist and in ensembles in Chile, Argentina, the United States and Europe.

Mozart's Piano Concerto in D Minor, K. 466, is one of only two written in the minor. The key of D minor is highly significant and underlines the tragic character of the concerto. Written in great haste and completed just a day before its premiere, Mozart played the concerto on February 11, 1785, at a subscription concert in Vienna. Mozart’s father, Leopold, wrote to his daughter Anna Maria (Nannerl) after the concert: “Then we had a new and very fine concerto by Wolfgang, that the copyist was still working on when we arrived, and the rondo of which your brother didn’t even have the time to play through, as he had to supervise the copying.”