Bach, C P E: Oboe Concerto in E flat major, Wq. 165, H. 468

These oboe concertos are transcriptions of harpsichord concertos, made in 1765 in Berlin. Paul Dombrecht is a renowned Flemish musician and is particularly interested in forgotten, little-known or rarely played scores. He is conductor and artistic director of Il Fondamento, Octophorus and the Paul Dombrecht Consort.

C.P.E. Bach’s two surviving oboe concertos both began as keyboard concertos that were later transcribed for oboe; their intended performer was probably Johann Christian Fischer, a virtuoso based in Potsdam in the mid 1760s. This would perhaps account for their technical and immensely challenging solo lines, which suggest that, like his father, Carl Philipp Emmanuel revelled in pushing instruments and performers to their limits.

The highpoints of both concertos are their slow movements, which feature music of such beauty and chromatic melancholy – achieve by muting the oboe with sheep’s wool – that the emotion is profoundly moving. The concertos are complemented by the Pastorale in A minor and Sonata in G minor. Although the Pastorale is of uncertain authorship and may have been composed by C.P.E Bach’s brother Wilhelm Friedemann, the Sonata can be dated to the mid 1730s.

Like the concertos, this work has a highly effective slow movement, in this case the opening movement, containing music of great beauty and high emotional charge. A fast movement follows, and the work concludes with a virtuosic set of variations.

This 2-CD set is a re-issue of two separate albums, the first being a collection of arias for soprano and oboe by J.S. Bach performed by Pauline Oostenrijk and her sister the soprano Nienke Oostenrijk, (previously available on Vanguard), and the second a performance by Pauline of concertos by J.S. Bach, and two of his sons J.C. Bach and C.P.E Bach. Both recordings feature the Amsterdam Sinfonietta and conductor (and well-known cellist) Jaap ter Linden.

In 1999 Pauline Oostenrijk received the Music Prize of The Netherlands, the highest State Award for classical music. She is a member of the Orlando Wind Quintet and the ensemble Nieuw Amsterdams Peil, and several composers have dedicated works to her, among them Louis Andriessen. Pauline Oostenrijk’s previous releases for Challenge Classics include a collection of 20th century pieces ‘Oboesession’ (CC72062), and a disc devoted to concertos by Vivaldi (CC72389).

Pauline Oostenrijk’s sister Nienke appears in opera roles as well as on the concert platform, and has performed throughout Europe but mostly in The Netherlands and Germany. She is also a much sought-after Lieder singer.

These delightful concertos, pleasing in themselves, always fresh and full of invention, also provide a fascinating aural link between the Barock and Classical eras. It was of course C.P.E’s father, Johann Sebastian, who had visited the Prussian court of Frederick the Great, and been fated there for both his keyboard and compositional virtuosity: not the least result of which was his later masterpiece of chamber music, The Musical Offering, which subjects a theme originally devised by Frederick (or a more complex version of it) to endless contrapuntal variation. Perhaps as a result of that trip, C.P.E. secured a place at Frederick’s court, though when he arrived the welcome was not as warm as his father’s: Frederick, as a keen and by no means unskilled flute player, prized Joachhim Johann Quantz as ‘his’ favourite composer, not least because Quantz was especially expert in playing and writing music for the instrument in question.

Nothing loth, C.P.E. set to and fulfilled his duties, and with something of his father’s unbending will: perhaps another reason why he never found favour at the court. Two of the concertos on this disc were originally written for the court’s oboists, but they sit equally well within the compass of the flute when sympathetically transcribed.

These ground breaking performances are now available in PentaTone’s unique RQR series. The playing by Heinz Holliger in the Oboe Concertos is surely the bench mark by which all others must be judged.