Stefan Henneken Solid

A new Naxos recording offering two of Hofmann's oboe concerti and two concerti for oboe and harpsichord proves that the prolific Viennese composer could write nice tunes and develop them with spiffy efficiency. Both technical bravura and the expressive colours of the oboe are well explored in these conventional but vivacious three-movement concerti. Stefan Schilli (principal oboe of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra), Jeno Jando (harpsichord) and the Nicolaus Esterhazy Sinfonia under Bela Drahos play with superb panache and discipline; the sound engineering is wonderfully transparent and detailed notes are included.

Bach and other Baroque composers often transcribed their music for new instrumental combinations as needed under the press of a busy schedule, and performers like South African-born recorder player Stefan Temmingh have taken this fact as carte blanche to create arrangements of Bach's music as desired. You can make various arguments pro or con in connection with this practice, and the procedure here, going from keyboard works to ensemble pieces, is in some ways the most problematical. So what you think of Temmingh's disc may depend on where you come down on the larger question.

Richard Strauss' dramatic Festival Prelude for organ and orchestra opens this 2017 MDG audiophile release, though the major work on the program is the Symphony No. 2 in E flat major of Franz Schmidt, the longest of his four symphonies and in many ways the most challenging to perform. The two works were written in 1913, and the celebratory mood of the Strauss piece, which was composed for the dedication of the Vienna Konzerthaus, adequately sets the stage for Schmidt's cheerful symphony. Listeners well acquainted with Strauss' post-Romantic style will find much of his influence in the latter work, both in terms of the lavish orchestration and the elaborate, multi-layered writing. Schmidt clearly absorbed Strauss' tone poems, and echoes of Don Juan, Ein Heldenleben, and Also sprach Zarathustra can be detected throughout the Symphony No. 2.