MDG Scene  903 1598-6

Stereo/Multichannel Hybrid

Classical

Nikos Skalkottas: Concertino for Oboe and Chamber Orchestra (1939), Kalevi Aho: Seven Inventions with Postlude for Oboe and Violoncello, Richard Strauss: Concerto for Oboe and Small Orchestra (1945)

Yeon-Hee Kwak (oboe)
David Pia (cello)
Munchner Rundfunkorchester
Johannes Goritzki (conductor)


Triple Feature
Yeon-Hee Kwak already has a catalogue rarity featuring concertos by Martinu and Dorati to her credit, and now this outstanding oboist and Munich resident pays tribute to three other twentieth-century composers. She performs with the Bavarian Radio Orchestra under Johannes Goritzki in a brand-new recording of the Strauss Oboe Concerto and the recording premiere of the orchestral version of the Concertino for Oboe and Orchestra by Nikos Skalkottas. The Inventions with a Postlude for Oboe and Cello by the Finnish composer Kalevi Aho form welcome encores.

Transforming Experience
Special circumstances sometimes produce special works. If an American soldier, an oboist from Pittsburgh serving in Germany after World War II, had not met Richard Strauss, the eighty-one-year-old composer probably would never have written his world-famous Oboe Concerto. In an environment of transformation marked by deep grief, the man who was certainly the most successful composer of his time wrote a bright work full of airy lightness and wit, without a trace of the gloomy and uncertain circumstances of 1945.

Extraordinary Talent
The compositions by Nikos Skalkottas are indeed a discovery. The extraordinary quality of this extraordinary composer is only gradually becoming known; a native of Athens, he was driven by pure need to return from Berlin to his native Greece in 1933. In his Concertino this Schönberg pupil combines carefree joy of performance and burlesque wit with folkloristic rhythm, while breathtaking cascades follow tenderly felt moods – a gripping experience and a showpiece for the soloist, who once again has the opportunity to display her extraordinary capabilities.

Fascinating Tour
Yeon-Hee Kwak has discovered a genuine gem in the Inventions of Kalevi Aho. With her cello partner David Ria she sets out on a journey through a mighty cosmos. Small in form but magnificent in expression: it is fascinating how the Finnish composer plays with the baroque idea and what colors the two musicians, individually and in dialogue, conjure out of the score! Produced in the finest SACD technique and the MDG trademark 2+2+2 sound, audio worlds of enthralling intensity spread out before the listener – an audiophile experience of the highest order!