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Listened to Benjamin Britten's "Six Metamorphoses after Ovid" today ("John Mack, Oboe", Crystal Records CD323). For me, there is something about the sound of this old tool that causes the world stand to still and the ears to listen. Amazing instrument!
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I,too, love the oboe. I wish composers would score for it more frequently, rather than relying on flute so often.
Hearing the actual instrument, rather than a recording, is certainly amazing, isn't it? A real treat.
.., I have not had the opportunity to hear live oboe music in years. It's a rare event, especially if you live far away from a major metropolitan area like I do. Excellent recordings (like the ones available from Crystal Records!) do help, though.
In a non-classical vein, search out recordings by the group Oregon, featuring Paul McCandless on oboe, Ralph Towner on classical guitar and piano, Glen Moore on bass and Collin Walcott on tabla, sitar, etc. A unique ensemble playing a form of jazz/classical furion that is captivating. With oboe always having a prominent place in the group.
Oregon Discography (includes reviews of selected albums)
I like their first 3 albums best, but they made many other good ones.
"Life without music is a mistake" (Nietzsche)
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"We are as gods and might as well get good at it." - Stewart Brand
I've got these on an old Nonesuch LP, and they are absolutely superb in every possible way, including sound (a Marc Aubort/Teresa Stern production, needless to say, mastered by Robert Ludwig).
-Bob
I believe I own the very same LP. Excellent!
An oboe player lives across the street from us and on nice weather days (unlike today) he has his windows open when practicing
and the sound is lovely and enveloping as it flows through the air.
I'm pretty sure he's with the SF Symphony as the quality of what he plays is superb, though not being very knowledgeable of
the instrument, I don't recognize the pieces. He had someone over one afternoon and they did an Ellington duet (forget which piece) and it knocked me out.
Normally I don't want to hear anything from the outside world when at home, and certainly NOT
when I'm listening to music on the system, but that oboe is insinuatingly luscious and I find myself
looking forward to his practicing.
I've even turned my stereo off to glean some of the dulcet tones...
" Once this was all Black Plasma and Imagination." -Michael McClure
I think the sonatas by many modern and lesser known composers from the 17th-19th-century present a much richer body of work, melodically, than just the baroque masters.
"What did the Romans ever do for us?"
"I'm pretty sure he's with the SF Symphony as the quality of what he plays is superb"
Marc Lifschey played for the SF Symph. after his Cleveland days, until around 1985...... IMO, he had the greatest oboe tone, ever.................
You just know it. When you hear the sound of the oboe, you are going waaaa-aaay back in time.
IIRC it was the Philidor and Hoteterre (?) families who developed them, from the shawm which were vital to the volume of the sound of Louis XIV's outdoor ensembles - military bands plus extras.
The hobby / hoboy could be used indoors. But it remained/s the principal woodwind in military bands.
Warmest
Timothy Bailey
The Skyptical Mensurer and Audio Scrounger
And gladly would he learn and gladly teach - Chaucer. ;-)!
'Still not saluting.'
http://www.theanalogdept.com/tim_bailey.htm
If you're interested in reading further about the early history of the oboe (and a whole lot more) that Timbo touches on, look for the "The Oboe" by Geoffrey Burgess and Bruce Haynes, Yale University Press, 2004.
Geoffrey is an enormously gifted young Australian/American oboist and historian who also has several wonderful CDs (playing hautbois) to his credit.
Disclaimer--I'm proud to say that Geoffrey is a personal friend, so I hope that doesn't negate or diminish my recommendation. It really is a wonderful book and worth seeking out.
Another worthwhile book is the excellent Marcel Tabuteau biography by Laila Storch, Indiana University Press, 2008.
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"You weren't afraid of being born--why would you be afraid of dying?" Alan Watts
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"You weren't afraid of being born--why would you be afraid of dying?" Alan Watts
the sound of a North American oboist like John Mack is a fairly recent phenomenon, traceable to his teacher Marcel Tabuteau, who was the solo oboist of the Philadelphia Orchestra from 1915 to 1954. Tabuteau single-handedly created the sound (and technique) that we associate with the great American oboe players of the 20th century, such as Mack, Robert Bloom, Harold and Ralph Gomberg, John de Lancie, Marc Lifschey, Arno Mariotti, Bert Gassman, Rhadames Angelucci, etc., etc., all of whom were Tabuteau students. The only major player who was not a Tabuteau student was Ray Still, formerly of the Chicago Symphony and still very much with us at the age of 90. Tabuteau was quite a wise guy, and reportedly quipped, "He (Still) wasn't my student, but he did all right for himself anyway".
BTW, one of the very last students of Tabuteau, Al Genovese (former principal oboe of the Boston Symphony), passed away last Friday. He was in his 80s. There aren't too many left who are still active. The only one that comes to mind is Don Baker in Detroit, but of course the DSO is on currently on strike and is in danger of extinction. If the orchestra goes belly up, Don will probably retire.
"You weren't afraid of being born--why would you be afraid of dying?" Alan Watts
It's just a feeling that resonates, and it may (or may not) count for something. Who knows? Maybe the evolution of the oboe followed it's peculiar course for reasons sublime.
on a topic dear to my heart!
"You weren't afraid of being born--why would you be afraid of dying?" Alan Watts
Liang Wang, principal oboist of the NY Philharmonic, studied with Richard Woodhams at Curtis, and Woodhams was a student of John de Lancie, also at Curtis.
Walter Damrosch's decision to pay enough to lure French wind and brass players to the NY Symphony had a major impact on wind playing in the U.S. In addition to Marcel Tabuteau, Damrosch brought in flutist Georges Barrere, who quickly became the leading flute teacher in the U.S. Barrere retired from the NYSO when it merged with the NY Philharmonic in 1928 but his students included William Kincaid, John Wummer and Maurice Sharp. Kincaid's students included Julius Baker and Joseph Mariano.
As a local professional on the instrument explained to me, Tabuteau's great contribution was a novel way to cut the double reed. The sound of the oboe with the Tabuteau reed was richer, louder and smoother than the typical thin, pinched, quacking sound of conventional reeds.
Tabuteau was French, and imported by Walter Damrosch in 1905 to join the NYSO. As noted, he became principal of the Philadelphia Orchestra in 1915 and stayed nearly 40 years.
but that's really secondary to his unique approach to phrasing and music-making in general, which he taught to oboists and non-oboists alike in his famous ensemble class at Curtis. Tabuteau, in turns out, influenced a whole generation of American musicians.Laila Storch's book gives an excellent outline of this phenomenon. The list of quotes from former members of the Philadelphia Orchestra and noted soloists reads like a Who's-Who of American music.
Most of them speak in glowing terms of how "Tabuteau changed my life", or "Without Tabuteau, I wouldn't be the musician I am today".
BTW, it's worth noting that Tabuteau devised his new way of making reeds after he had been in the U.S. for several years--probably in response to the sound he was hearing (and competing against) in Philly.
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"You weren't afraid of being born--why would you be afraid of dying?" Alan Watts
Edits: 03/14/11
"Tabuteau, in turns out, influenced a whole generation of American musicians."
He may have been an extraordinary teacher....... But his playing from recording never really did much for me, and I cannot pinpoint why. Kind of like Bud Herseth with the trumpet. Or Maurice Sharp with the flute..........
since there are very few recordings of him around. Unless you listen to early Philadelphia recordings (78s), you won't hear much of Tabuteau. Even on the early LPs--by the early 50s, Tabuteau was frequently absent from the orchestra due to health problems, and so de Lancie had to sub for him.The best chance to hear Tabuteau, ironically, is on amateur tape made during lessons by one of his students, the Danish oboist Waldemar Wolsing. A CD of it is included with the Laila Storch biography. Listen to it if you get a chance--Tabuteau's sound, and especially his phrasing, are magical. I would take that sound over ANYTHING one hears today.
All of the big-name oboists I've ever talked to over the years, such as Mack, de Lancie, even Still, were quick to point out how mesmerizing, how truly unique Tabuteau's playing was in person (the 78s don't do him justice). There will probably never be another oboist of his caliber, at least in the orchestral field.
"You weren't afraid of being born--why would you be afraid of dying?" Alan Watts
Edits: 03/16/11
Based on your time perspective, the oboe I've heard on a lot of Phila. Orch. recordings was after the Tabuteau era...... Maybe that explains it.
Knowing that, there were probably not a lot of good recordings of him performing, at least by modern standards.
Au contraire, I found several CD's featuring Tabuteau's playing at amazon.com.
His performances of Mozart K370 and Bach BWV1093 from the Prades Festival are available from Music and Arts as single albums and an 8 CD set.
Boston 6A6H is a compilation of excerpts from his Philadelphia recordings, acoustic and electrical, from 1920 to 1940.
I forgot about the Prades Festival recordings--those are actually pretty decent.
The Philadelphia Orchestra excerpts, on the other hand, are rather dim sounding, not a good indication of Tabuteau's sound. Every one of his orchestral colleagues interviewed in Laila Storch's book said that the recordings made during the 78 era didn't do him justice.
"You weren't afraid of being born--why would you be afraid of dying?" Alan Watts
It is said that Claudio Abbado felt that Ray Still's style combined the "... best of the European and American schools, without the weaknesses of either...". What do you think these strengths and weaknesses are?
Is the oboe soloist in the linked video below Ray Still? I've been curious for several years now..........
George Szell conducting the Chicago Symphony Orchestra..........
Interestingly, Still was not a student of Tabuteau, but of the great Robert Bloom (one of Tabuteau's first students at Curtis) who was the principal of the NBC Symphony under Toscanini, until he was replaced by the gawd-awful Paolo Renzi.
"You weren't afraid of being born--why would you be afraid of dying?" Alan Watts
What's funny is I never cared for Still's upper register, except for that Szell clip........ I thought Still was magnificent in that clip. It seems like Szell had a big influence on "wind sound", which was not necessarily unique to Cleveland.
Well, I can only surmise that Abbado was referring to the fact that Still played with somewhat more vibrato than most.
As for weaknesses? Being an American woodwind player, I really can't think of any! ;-)
"You weren't afraid of being born--why would you be afraid of dying?" Alan Watts
I never realized John Mack made a solo recording...... He had an incredibly big sound, and stayed sweet in the upper registers.
He was a magnificent oboe player and (judging by the quality of his students playing in major orchestras all over the world) a wonderful teacher. There are a bunch of his recordings here:
http://www.crystalrecords.com/johnmack.html
(you need RealPlayer to hear the sound samples).
The John Mack recording we CAN'T hear is his performance of the Strauss Oboe Concerto. He performed it twice in Cleveland, if my memory is correct. The first performance (conducted by Matthias Bamert) had the better orchestral accompaniment. I haven't heard it in many years. The second (conducted by Klaus Tennstedt) was not quite as well accompanied, but Mack was superlative. That performance has been played from time to time on WCLV during their archive replays of orchestra broadcasts. I've never seen off-the-air recordings of either performance, but I'd sure love to have one. IMO it is far better than most of the commercial recordings that I've heard (and I've heard most of them--Alex Klein with Barenboim/Chicago, very different interpretation than Mack's but also beautifully played, is my favorite).
BTW Mack's successor (and student), Frank Rosenwein, is also a magnificant player.
He made at last two solo albums for Crystal Records.
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