Cristina Gomez Godoy, oboe; Daniel Barenboim, West-Eastern Divan Orchestra. Warner Classics 0190295077600.
By John J. Puccio
It’s true the oboe takes something of a backseat when it comes to being the featured instrument in a concerto, but there have been a surprising number of such concertos since the introduction of the oboe in the mid seventeenth century. Composers like Albinoni, Bach, Handel, Scarlatti, Telemann, Vivaldi, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Weber, R. Strauss, plus a perhaps surprising plethora of more-modern composers have all contributed to the genre. On the current disc, oboist Cristina Gomez Godoy, conductor Daniel Barenboim, and the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra offer two popular examples of their kind, one from Mozart and a later one from Richard Strauss.
First, though, a word about the performers. Ms. Godoy is a Spanish oboist who made her recital debut at Carnegie Hall, New York and Pierre Boulez Saal, Berlin in 2019. According to her Web site, “for the season 2020/21 she has been selected as ECHO Rising Star 2020/21 nominated by L’Auditori Barcelona, which will bring her to perform as a recitalist and chamber musician at the main European venues.” The present disc represents Ms. Godoy’s debut album for Warner Classics. Maestro Barenboim (b. 1943) hardly needs introduction. He is a concert pianist and conductor with citizenships in Argentina, Israel, Palestine, and Spain, with countless personal appearances and as many recordings. The West-Eastern Divan Orchestra is one that Barenboim and Edward Said founded in 1999 “to promote understanding between Israelis and Palestinians and pave the way for a peaceful and fair solution of the Arab–Israeli conflict.”
The first selection on the album is the earliest, the Oboe Concerto in C, K.314, written by a relatively young Mozart in 1777. Typical of the composer, it has an alert, bouncy style in the opening Allegro, a lovely Adagio, and a delightfully bouyant Rondo finale. This is met with some equally perky playing from Ms. Godoy and her partners. Mozart never seemed to run out of beguiling tunes, but if these particular melodies sound familiar, it’s because he used them again a year or so later in his Flute Concerto. Whatever, Ms. Godoy’s playing is sweet and light, charming throughout.
The second selection is the Concerto in D for Oboe and Small Orchestra, TrV 292, one of Richard Strauss’s last works, written in 1945. Now, you might think it odd to pair two such diverse composers as Mozart and Strauss on the same program, yet when you hear the two compositions for oboe side-by-side you can’t help hear the influence of the former on the latter. Of course, it’s propitious that Ms. Godoy plays both of them with the same gentle, mellifluous touch. The honeyed charm of her instrument and the alluring fascination of her performances cannot help but persuade us like what she does.
Strauss may not have been in the modern fashion of the times with his throwback oboe concerto, but one cannot deny the appeal of Strauss’s Classical decisiveness and succinctness, along with the score’s Romantic flowering and emotionalism. The music spirals forward in each of tis traditional three movements from several tiny fragments in the beginning, culminating in a jazzy, snazzy final movement that Ms. Godoy seems to enjoy as much as the listener. Maestro Barenboim also appears to be as saucy in his direction of both the Mozart and Strauss as he was fifty-odd years earlier with the English Chamber Orchestra in some of the finest recordings of Mozart symphonies and piano concertos around. So, it’s a double pleasure to have a new, young friend with us in Ms. Godoy and an older friend back in such fine form.
Producer Friedemann Engelbrecht and engineer Julian Schwenkner recorded the concertos at Pierre Boulez Saal, Berlin, Germany in July and August 2019. The miking is slightly farther back than I’ve heard in a while, but it opens up the orchestra to some realistic depth and imaging. The tonal balance does tend to favor the top half of the spectrum over the bottom half, so it’s a bit bright on occasion.
JJP
By John J. Puccio
First, though, a word about the performers. Ms. Godoy is a Spanish oboist who made her recital debut at Carnegie Hall, New York and Pierre Boulez Saal, Berlin in 2019. According to her Web site, “for the season 2020/21 she has been selected as ECHO Rising Star 2020/21 nominated by L’Auditori Barcelona, which will bring her to perform as a recitalist and chamber musician at the main European venues.” The present disc represents Ms. Godoy’s debut album for Warner Classics. Maestro Barenboim (b. 1943) hardly needs introduction. He is a concert pianist and conductor with citizenships in Argentina, Israel, Palestine, and Spain, with countless personal appearances and as many recordings. The West-Eastern Divan Orchestra is one that Barenboim and Edward Said founded in 1999 “to promote understanding between Israelis and Palestinians and pave the way for a peaceful and fair solution of the Arab–Israeli conflict.”
The first selection on the album is the earliest, the Oboe Concerto in C, K.314, written by a relatively young Mozart in 1777. Typical of the composer, it has an alert, bouncy style in the opening Allegro, a lovely Adagio, and a delightfully bouyant Rondo finale. This is met with some equally perky playing from Ms. Godoy and her partners. Mozart never seemed to run out of beguiling tunes, but if these particular melodies sound familiar, it’s because he used them again a year or so later in his Flute Concerto. Whatever, Ms. Godoy’s playing is sweet and light, charming throughout.
Strauss may not have been in the modern fashion of the times with his throwback oboe concerto, but one cannot deny the appeal of Strauss’s Classical decisiveness and succinctness, along with the score’s Romantic flowering and emotionalism. The music spirals forward in each of tis traditional three movements from several tiny fragments in the beginning, culminating in a jazzy, snazzy final movement that Ms. Godoy seems to enjoy as much as the listener. Maestro Barenboim also appears to be as saucy in his direction of both the Mozart and Strauss as he was fifty-odd years earlier with the English Chamber Orchestra in some of the finest recordings of Mozart symphonies and piano concertos around. So, it’s a double pleasure to have a new, young friend with us in Ms. Godoy and an older friend back in such fine form.
Producer Friedemann Engelbrecht and engineer Julian Schwenkner recorded the concertos at Pierre Boulez Saal, Berlin, Germany in July and August 2019. The miking is slightly farther back than I’ve heard in a while, but it opens up the orchestra to some realistic depth and imaging. The tonal balance does tend to favor the top half of the spectrum over the bottom half, so it’s a bit bright on occasion.
JJP
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