Hofmann: Oboe Concertos

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Cat No: 8553979

Release Date: 01 September 2002

Label: Naxos / Naxos Classics

Packaging Type: Jewel Case

No of Units: 1

Barcode: 730099497923

Genres: Classical

Composer/Series: HOFMANN

Description
Leopold Hofmann (1738-1793)Oboe ConcertosConcertos for Oboe and HarpsichordLeopold Hofmann was the most prolific and arguably the most popular composer of concertos in Vienna during the mid-eighteenth century. He composed around sixty concertos between the late 1750s and mid-1770s for a variety of solo instruments. Some of these works, notably the concertos for keyboard and violin, may have been written for his own use or as teaching pieces. The remainder, however, occupy a more problematic place among his compositions. Although he may have written a good deal of music for amateur ‘public’ consumption, large-scale works such as symphonies and concertos probably were composed upon commission. Although there is no unequivocal evidence to substantiate this view, the concentration of certain genres in particular collections suggests some sort of contact with the composer. One of the most notable instances of this is the preservation of a group of otherwise unknown flute concertos by Hofmann in the library of the Princes of Thurn und Taxis in Regensburg. Hofmann’s oboe concertos are particularly problematic in this regard. First, the extant solo concertos are associated with three collections, none of which appears to have stronger claims to being considered the most authentic source than either of the others. Secondly, of the six extant oboe concertos, two works (C1 and d1) are arrangements of flute concertos (D1 and e1). These arrangements, which in effect are little more than transpositions, might be the work of Hofmann himself but equally might be the work of either a professional copyist or performer. The Concerto C3, another problematic work, shares its slow movement with G1, a practice which is unusual for Hofmann and may indicate that the work was assembled as a pastiche by someone other than the composer. The remaining works, however, appear to be genuine oboe concertos. One, F1, appears in the Breitkopf Catalogue as an oboe concerto (Supplement V, 1770); the others, although absent from Breitkopf and other contemporary thematic catalogues, are preserved in more than one source and are not known in any other version. That none of the works achieved wide circulation is unsurprising. The oboe was not a particularly popular solo instrument in the later eighteenth century and concertos generally survive in comparatively few copies. Nonetheless, the fact that Hofmann’s concertos for oboe (and oboe and harpsichord) can be found in Berlin, Dresden, Harburg, Budapest and Krom??er??íz?? suggests that his reputation as a composer for the instrument was well known. A lost double oboe concerto by Hofmann was performed at the Viennese court by Johann Schmid and Luigi Livraghi on 12th November 1762. It is one of only a handful of documented performances of Hofmann’s concertos in his lifetime. In form and style Hofmann’s oboe concertos are indistinguishable from his flute concertos, which in turn bear a strong fami
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