Friday, 9 May 2025

Vivaldi, Oboe, Holliger, I Musici - simply beautiful



A little treat for lovers of the baroque oboe - slow movement from a concerto by Vivaldi; played by the greatest oboist of whom I know - Heinz Holliger - and the lyrical and resonant strings of I Musici. The continuo harpsichordist is also improvising some lovely things. 

The melody is very simple and the orchestral accompaniment likewise; but Vivaldi was a master of string textures, and the deployment of occasional unexpected harmonic shifts. 

The writing for oboe offers tremendous scope for such a fine and creative soloist to generate a continuous melodic line, and introduce subtle decorations and dynamics (changes of volume). 

It's about as structurally-simple as classical music can be; and (in this performance) very beautiful to my ear. 


1 comment:

Luke said...

Thanks for sharing.
-Lucas