An underappreciated aspect of conductor Daniel Barenboim's career has been the degree to which he has mentored young musicians. Oboist Cristina Gómez Godoy was a member of Barenboim's West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, leading to this debut album featuring the two major concertos of the classical repertory, those by Mozart (the Oboe Concerto in C major, K. 314, which also exists as a flute concerto) and Richard Strauss (the Oboe Concerto in D major). The album is sparse at less than 47 minutes, and one of Albinoni's oboe ...
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An underappreciated aspect of conductor Daniel Barenboim's career has been the degree to which he has mentored young musicians. Oboist Cristina Gómez Godoy was a member of Barenboim's West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, leading to this debut album featuring the two major concertos of the classical repertory, those by Mozart (the Oboe Concerto in C major, K. 314, which also exists as a flute concerto) and Richard Strauss (the Oboe Concerto in D major). The album is sparse at less than 47 minutes, and one of Albinoni's oboe concertos as a curtain-raiser might not have been out of place, but Gómez makes a good case for the program as is. The Strauss concerto is one of a group of late works in which he returned to a Classical spirit, and it has a kinship with Mozart that runs like a thread through Strauss' creative life. Gómez's lively performances of both works catch this, and perhaps the album's strongest feature is the crisp fit between soloist and the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra under Barenboim's direction....
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