DCD34245-CD

Olivier Stankiewicz: Mozart violin sonatas on oboe

The joy of discovery and the familiar made new: these are the guiding precepts for this beguiling Mozart album from LSO principal oboist Olivier Stankiewicz.

Taking a fresh and personal approach to the standard repertoire that at the same time is founded in a performance tradition Mozart himself would have recognised, Stankiewicz discovers in three of the composer’s best-loved violin sonatas an ideal vehicle for the oboe’s own particular brand of lyricism and virtuosity.

In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, popular works were often transcribed to produce domestically playable versions, and chamber and orchestral works published with alternative scoring options or reworked entirely for different instruments. The underlying principle of instrumental interchangeability is revived here, and triumphantly vindicated by the fresh insights on offer.

"Mozart didn’t write a single oboe sonata, but listening to these glistening performances might make you believe otherwise. Adapting three of Mozart’s violin sonatas, the London Symphony Orchestra’s principal oboist, Olivier Stankiewicz, makes each one utterly his own with characterful, fluid playing that proves the instrument’s suitability for both Mozart’s long melodic lines and sense of playfulness"

"The partnership between the two artists is exemplary, and one could not ask for more. The transcriptions for the oboe have produced many challenges that would be the undoing of us mere mortals, but the performances here are astounding. I am green with envy"

CD SPOTLIGHT - CLASSICAL MUSIC DAILY

read the full review here

"It makes sense: the two instruments share the ability to scintillate in notey virtuoso writing as well as to spin a rapt singing line in lyric music ... Jonathan Ware is an ever-attentive co-conspirator on a beautifully voiced Steinway. Balance between the two players in Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh, is just as it should be, enabling each to come to the fore or provide accompaniment as required"

Release Date: 28 May 2021
Catalogue Number: DCD34245
Recorded on 22-24 August 2020 in The Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh
Producer/Engineer: Paul Baxter
24-bit digital editing: Jack Davis
24-bit digital mastering: Paul Baxter
Piano: Steinway model D, 2015, serial no 599478
Piano technician: Norman Motion
Cover photography © Kaupo Kikkas
Session photography: foxbrushfilms.com
Design: John Christ | Booklet editor: John Fallas

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Part of the YCAT series on Delphian

This partnership between Delphian Records and YCAT offers rare new recording opportunities for the most promising young artists, combining YCAT’s mission of developing careers at a world-class level with Delphian’s twenty-year-long reputation for bold, considered programming. The partnership will give the artists a unique experience – from initial concept planning, recording and editing to the final packaged and digital product – and will enhance Delphian and YCAT’s commitments to nurturing artists’ artistic development and long-term careers.

Read more about the partnership and discover the range of releases here

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