Handel: My Favourite Instrument – Concertos, Sonatas & Arias with Oboe
1/27/2015, 26 Tracks, 1:15:21
Featuring
Xenia Löffler
Maria Friederike Schöder
Katrin Lazar
Batzdorfer Hofkapelle
George Frideric Handel
Did you know?
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Compositional Technique
Handel frequently reused musical themes; for example, the string theme from the introductory Grave of his early Oboe Concerto was later used in his Organ Concerto, HWV 296, and Concerto grosso, Opus 6 No. 11.
Performer Biography
Xenia Löffler, the oboist on this recording, has been the principal oboist of the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin since 2001 and has taught historical oboe at the Hochschule für Künste in Bremen since 2004.
Composer's Artistic Vision
Handel once remarked that the oboe was his "favourite instrument," a sentiment supported by his deep respect and concern for his oboists.
Performer Biography
Marie Friederike Schöder, the soprano on this recording, won first prize at the International Johann Sebastian Bach Competition in Leipzig in 2008.
Composition History
Handel's famous Oboe Concerto in G minor (HWV 287) was long known only from an unreliable 1863 edition until a set of parts from Handel's time was discovered in 1993.
Composer Biography
Handel's concern for his oboists extended to their families, as he helped establish a fund for destitute musicians after learning of his London oboist Jean Christian Kytch's children living in poverty.
Historical Context
In Rome, Handel collaborated with Ignazio Rion, a Venetian oboe virtuoso whose breathtaking passages and expressive adagio introduced new dimensions of oboe playing to the city.
