This album doesn't deliver any greatest hits at all, not even the arguably greatest hit of the contemporary repertory of oboe and ensemble, the Phantasy Quartet of Benjamin Britten. The title comes from one of two works included by Michael Finnissy, where it seems to refer to the four disparate but interlocking layers that make up the music: a Korean traditional melody in the oboe, a group of late Beethoven piano sonatas in the piano, a passage from Mahler's Sixth Symphony in the percussion, and some incipits from Vivaldi's ...
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This album doesn't deliver any greatest hits at all, not even the arguably greatest hit of the contemporary repertory of oboe and ensemble, the Phantasy Quartet of Benjamin Britten. The title comes from one of two works included by Michael Finnissy, where it seems to refer to the four disparate but interlocking layers that make up the music: a Korean traditional melody in the oboe, a group of late Beethoven piano sonatas in the piano, a passage from Mahler's Sixth Symphony in the percussion, and some incipits from Vivaldi's Four Seasons in the rest of the group. The title aside, it's an enjoyable group of contemporary English pieces. The divergence among these composers lies in how they treat the oboe and its relationship with the rest of the ensemble more than in general stylistic factors. The two works by Roger Redgate place the focus squarely on the oboe with considerable technical demands. Éperons (1988) is meant to evoke the "extreme situations" of free jazz playing in a composed context (i.e.,...
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