Helen Jahren is one of today’s most prominent oboe soloists. As one
might expect from a former pupil of the legendary Heinz Holliger, she
takes a great interest in contemporary music and has premièred a
succession of concertos and works written directly for her. On this disc
however, she presents a selection of pieces written between 1935 and
1983 for oboe, with and without piano accompaniment. The composers are
Britten, Doráti and Krenek – of English, Hungarian and Austrian origin
respectively – and the musical styles they employ in these pieces are
even more varied. But as will be obvious to any listener, the specific
qualities of the oboe have been a strong inspiration for all three
composers. These qualities have been described by Berlioz: ‘The sounds
of the oboe are suitable for expressing simplicity, artless grace,
gentle happiness, or the grief of a weak soul’, and by Richard Strauss:
’With its thick and insolent low register and its pointed, incisively
thin upper register the oboe is very well suited to humorous effects and
caricatures: the oboe can rasp and squawk, just as well as it can sing
nobly and chastely.’ These diverse personalities of the oboe are much in
evidence on this disc. And they are admirably brought out by Helen
Jahren with the assistance of Elizabeth Westenholz, known to BIS
followers for a large number of recordings, including the complete works
for solo piano by her compatriot Carl Nielsen as well as Beethoven’s
piano concertos and various chamber music programmes.
