Albinoni: Oboe Concertos, Vol. 2

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Cat No: 8553002

Release Date: 12 January 1999

Label: Naxos - Nxc / Naxos Classics

Packaging Type: Jewel Case

No of Units: 1

Barcode: 730099400220

Genres: Classical

Composer/Series: ALBINONI

Description
Tomaso Giovanni Albinoni (1671 - 1751)Oboe Concerti, Op. 7, Nos. 2, 3, 8 & 9, and Op. 9, No.6 String Concerto, Op. 7, No.1 Sinfonia in G majorThe oboe, perfected in France around the middle of theseventeenth century, gained acceptance in Venice during the 1690s. The first knownVenetian operas to include a part for it dated from 1692, and by 1696 at the latest it hadbeen heard at the Basilica of San Marco, which two years later recruited its firstpermanent player of the oboe. Several other oboists of note established themselves in thecity, and the four ospedaligrandi, the charitable institutions caring for foundlings, orphans and thedestitute, added the instrument to the teaching curriculum.It was logical, given Italy's - and, indeed, Venice's- pioneering r??le in the development of the concerto, that sooner or later the firstconcerti with parts for oboes would be written. The big question was how, if at all,should they differ in style and form from violin concerti? For Vivaldi, as for mostItalian composers, the problem was easily resolved. In his hands the oboe becomes a kindof ersatz violin. To be sure, he takes care not to exceed the normal compass of theinstrument (running from the D above Middle C to the D two octaves higher), remembers toinsert pauses for breathing and avoids over-abrupt changes of register, but the solo partstill seems remarkably violinistic - as Vivaldi himself tacitly acknowledged when, on morethan one occasion, he prescribed the violin as an alternative to the oboe. It was left to Vivaldi's important Venetian contemporary,Tomaso Albinoni, to find another way of treating the oboe in a concerto. Apart from beinga capable violinist, Albinoni was a singing teacher married to an operatic diva. Hisexperience of writing operas and cantatas decisively affected the way in which heapproached melody and instrumentation. His concerti equate the oboe not with a violin butwith the human voice in an aria. Conjunct movement and small intervals are generallypreferred to wide skips. In opening orchestral passages the oboe does not double the firstviolin (as in Vivaldi concerti) but bides its time until its solo entry or else suppliesan independent line. The opening solo idea is often presented twice - the first timeabortively, the second time with a normal continuation. This twofold presentation is adevice borrowed straight from the operatic aria of the time. Albinoni describes these works as concerti 'with' rather than'for' oboe. The difference is significant. Whereas in a Vivaldi oboe concerto the primeaim is to show off the capability of the soloist, here the oboe is the partner rather thanthe dominator of the first violin - and even the second violin is not excluded from thediscourse. The spirit of give and take that exists between the treble instruments lendsthese works a character that reminds one of chamber music.Albinoni's first set of Concertia cinque with parts for one or two oboes, published in Amsterdam as his Opus 7 in 1715,
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