Oboe Solos

This recording is part of the Naïve label's Vivaldi Edition, a complete recording, scheduled to run to 100 discs, of a trove of Vivaldi manuscripts unearthed at the library of the National University of Turin. The recordings have been divided up among various mostly young Italian Baroque interpreters, with a pleasing variety of approaches. The small group Zefiro, under the direction of oboist and soloist Alfredo Bernardini, offers one-instrument-per-part readings and subtle, graceful solos on two different copies of the same 1730 oboe by the London builder Stanesby. Three of the concertos here are reissued from a 1994 recording for the Astrée label, but the approaches of the older and newer recordings are consistent, the biggest difference being the use of a double bass rather than a violin in the continuo group in the later concertos.

Music of the period between the High Baroque of Bach and Vivaldi and the High Classical music of Haydn and Mozart has lately been the focus of energetic exploration by historical-instrument ensembles. Italy was in the stylistic forefront of what became the symphony, but experiments in putting together what we know as the exquisitely balanced forms of the late eighteenth century occurred in various parts of Europe. This disc offers a fair sampling of the music of Johann Melchior Molter, a composer active in the German cities of Eisenach and Karlsruhe. There are two pieces titled "Ouverture," essentially French dance suites that are starting to show the influence of the symphony and replace some of the dances with Classical-sounding fast movements.

Un rayon de soleil traverse l’azur du petit matin et réchauffe le cœur d’une douce caresse… Dès le premier mouvement (largo) du Trio en la Majeur, Sébastien Marq expose son jeu doux et velouté, léger et transcendant. Et l’on s’émerveille, béat, devant la beauté du son, la justesse des sentiments, et ce toucher si délicat qui vous berce et vous emmène dans un jardin d’Eden. Le voyage s’achève sur quatre mêmes notes, plus suaves et doucereuses que les précédentes.

Johann Christoph Pepusch (1667 – 20 July 1752), also known as John Christopher Pepusch and Dr Pepusch, was a German-born composer who spent most of his working life in England. Pepusch was born in Berlin. At the age of 14, he was appointed to the Prussian court. About 1700, he settled in England where he was one of the founders, in 1726, of The Academy of Vocal Music, which around 1730/1 was renamed The Academy of Ancient Music. In Joseph Doane's Musical directory for the year 1794, the founding of the Academy is discussed; on page 76, Doane states that: In the year 1710 (memorable for Handel’s first appearance among us) a number of the most eminent composers and performers in London [agreed] to concert a plan of an Academy for the study and practice of Vocal and Instrumental Music, which was no sooner announced than it met the countenance and support of the principal persons of rank.

The Triumph of Time and Truth was Handel's last oratorio. But its composition goes back half a century, to his very first work in the form, Il trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno, written in Italy in 1707.
'Enchanting music, performed with warmth and insight. An important addition to the current list of Handel recordings' (The Sunday Times)
'Much recommended' (The Daily Telegraph)