Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Not Perfect, but highly recommended., June 25, 2000
By A Customer
Heinz Holliger is an excellent performer. Each time I hear something that he has done, the performance is impeccable. Holliger is almost universally known as the premiere oboist in the world. His playing is spare, but always aesthetically appropriate and musical. It is less well known that Holliger studied composition with Pierre Boulez and has been an ardent patron of modernist music through his career.Many pieces on this 'beginners guide to Holliger' are outstanding. First, Holliger's adaptation of J. S. Bach's "Musikalisches Opfer" is performed with the insight of a composer or great conductor; with a knowledge of the interaction of the actual and 'implied' melodic lines. Holliger has done his schenkerian analysis and it shines in this recording. Holliger does just as well on the telemann (especially the solo pieces), though the rigor of holliger doesn't get to reveal itself as thoroughly in the comparatively simple music of Telemann. The virtuosity and poise of the Penderecki track is excellent (this is where we see some of the best ensemble work, along with the musical offering). My initial reason for purchasing this collection with Holliger's own 'Study on Multiphonics' (Studie uber Mehrklange), which I had heard performed in the university concert hall some year earlier. This piece is a wonderful expose' of the possibilities of the technique of multiphonics, and if you are a composer, you must hear this piece. If you are a woodwind player who has never heard multiphonics before (or if you have and are interested), you should hear this piece. However, I would recommend it to anyone with an open mind about music. The ideas are almost purely timbral (dealing with sound color), but it is a tight and involving piece (it is a study for both the oboist and audience). The 'Lied' for electric flute was, in my opinion, the second highlight of this disc. It is a very interesting work, reminiscent of the works of Luciano Berio. Sparse, diverse sounds are combined in a somewhat 'conversational' fashion. However, I have some reservations about the Mozart Adagio and the Handel Trio Sonata. Both of these are ensemble pieces coupling oboe or english horn with a small string ensemble (one with basso continuo). The balance is totally off at times. I think that the sound engineer tampered with the dynamics so that the oboe 'soloist' would be featured in places. In my opinion, Holliger is too loud in these tracks. Though these pieces are mostly homophonic, most brief contrapuntal devices are completely bulldozed by this defect. I'm using some hyperbole here, and I should say that the balance is not consistently bad throughout these tracks, but there are moments the strings and harpsichord sound as if they are located in a different room than Holliger. However, I still must recommend this disc. The Mozart and Handel compositions weren't that interesting to begin with, and an outstanding performance probably wouldn't have rescued them from mediocrity, anyway. The Telemann is somewhat dull in composition, but worth a listen for Holliger's excellent interpretation of the material. He makes the banal Telemann sound live and graceful. The Bach, Penderecki and Holliger compositions are excellent and excellently played, and they alone are worth the low price of this disc (an excellent half an hour for just over ten dollars). Plus, this is the only affordable recording of the Holliger multiphonic study, which as I previously mentioned, you should hear.
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4.0 out of 5 stars
Back to Bach, January 6, 2009
Penderecki's Capriccio for Oboe & 11 Strings is one exciting piece! It dates from 1965, right in the thick of the one great period of creativity this uneven composer has enjoyed. The sounds he produces, as always during the sixties, are earthy, inhibited, almost raunchy: the antithesis to the more spartan, occasionally puritanical manner of Ligeti's Chamber Concerto, which bears a vague affinity to the Capriccio. What drives this piece is its rhythm; and what drives the rhythm is the oboe (not the bass instruments). Holliger's version is the best I know, because Holliger has a screw loose, and this wildness & apparent anarchy is what the music requires (Compare to the somewhat square rendering by Mariusz Pedzialek on WERGO and the slow, plodding conducting of Vladimir Spivakov, on COL LEGNO).
Though I advocate (in concert especially) mixing Contemporary music with the music of previous centuries, I must question the wisdom of placing Penderecki's Capriccio right next to Bach (i.e. the piece from the Musical Offering, also featured on this CD). The two just do not mix well, it seems to me; and to move abruptly from the perfections of Bach, his serenity and the well-controlled complexities of his Fugue-Making, to the contortions of Penderecki, is like going to a strip joint, right after Mass. There is a right time for everything and sunday morning is not the best time for musical lasciviousness.
Holliger and his band of prestigious musicians (Thunemann,Bourgue, Jacottet, Nicolet, Brunner et alii) do a fine job with the Bach, though, and with the Telemann and Handel as well.
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