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Oboe & Piano
Various composers

Viola Wilmsen & Kimiko Imani

Oboe & Piano

Price: € 19.95
Format: CD
Label: CAvi
UPC: 4260085533862
Catnr: AVI 8553386
Release date: 04 August 2017
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Label
CAvi
UPC
4260085533862
Catalogue number
AVI 8553386
Release date
04 August 2017
Album
Artist(s)
Composer(s)
EN

About the album

BEYOND “BEAUTIFUL SONORITIES”
What types of musical character do we associate with the oboe? We imagine long, lyrical phrases, mournful, fragile melodies, agile musicianship, and a folk-like character. During my time as principal oboist in the orchestra of the Deutsche Oper Berlin, it felt as if I died “a thousand deaths” every evening until the main character on stage had finally breathed his/her last sigh and the sobbing oboe had sung its plaintive melody to the end. On the other hand, have you ever heard an oboe sonority that is fierce, conquering or threatening?

The 20th century produced a number for works for oboe and piano in which the woodwind instrument adopts an almost “furious” character. In this program we would like to demonstrate the oboe’s variety of tone colour and great versatility. Our basic idea is centered on the oboe as a “singing voice”, with its tremendous ability to phrase long cantilenas: hence, this program is closely associated with the human voice. We have selected three works originally written for oboe, along with two brief vocal works we have arranged for the instrument. Unpretentious works from the youth of a composer such as Martinů stand alongside dramatic late works such as Pavel Haas’s Suite, which he originally conceived for voice but later arranged for oboe. Here we combine the original sources of inspiration –Moravian folk songs – with a series of works heavily influenced by Moravian folk music: the Suites by Pavel Haas and Klement Slavický, as well as Leoš Janáček’s opera Jenufa.

Oboists are increasingly performing Klement Slavický’s Suite in view of its many qualities: a series of technical challenges, a pastoral, quasi-improvised first movement, and attractive bravura passages in the Scherzo as well as in the fourth movement.……….. With the exception of Leoš Janá ˇ cek, all the composers on this CD were of Jewish faith, and shared the bitter experience of having been forced to flee their homeland or at least to give up their profession. Perhaps in times such as ours, when nationalism and racism are on the rise, these musicians’ destinies can inspire serious reflection and serve as a warning to us all.© 2017 Viola Wilmsen (liner notes)

Artist(s)

Viola Wilmsen (oboe)

Viola Wilmsen has been principal oboist of the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin (DSO) since 2012, prior to which she held the same position for three years in the orchestra of the Deutsche Oper Berlin. She is much in demand as a soloist and chamber musician worldwide. She has performed solo oboe concertos with the DSO (under Kent Nagano), with the Munich Chamber Orchestra, the Camerata Bern, the Hamburg Camerata, Kansai Philharmonic Orchestra (Japan) and the Haydn Orchestra (Italy). Furthermore, she has made solo appearances in venues such as the Berlin Philharmonie, the Berlin Konzerthaus and a great number of international festivals. Her chamber music sextet Berlin Counterpoint released its first CD in 2014 to wide critical acclaim; the ensemble has also received the Usedom Music Prize. In 2014 as...
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Viola Wilmsen has been principal oboist of the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin (DSO) since 2012, prior to which she held the same position for three years in the orchestra of the Deutsche Oper Berlin. She is much in demand as a soloist and chamber musician worldwide. She has performed solo oboe concertos with the DSO (under Kent Nagano), with the Munich Chamber Orchestra, the Camerata Bern, the Hamburg Camerata, Kansai Philharmonic Orchestra (Japan) and the Haydn Orchestra (Italy). Furthermore, she has made solo appearances in venues such as the Berlin Philharmonie, the Berlin Konzerthaus and a great number of international festivals. Her chamber music sextet Berlin Counterpoint released its first CD in 2014 to wide critical acclaim; the ensemble has also received the Usedom Music Prize. In 2014 as well, (Ms) Viola Wilmsen was a cowinner of the coveted German Echo Klassik award as a member of the Berolina Ensemble.
As solo oboist, guest appearances have led her to concertize with orchestras such as the Berlin and Munich Philharmonics, the Bamberg Symphony and the orchestras of the Berlin and Munich state operas. She has collaborated with renowned conductors such as Riccardo Chailly, Sir Simon Rattle, Valery Gergiev, Zubin Mehta and Andris Nelsons. Viola Wilmsen studied oboe with Diethelm Jonas in Lübeck, Dominik Wollenweber in Berlin, and Jacques Tys in Paris. In 2009 she won the International Sony Oboe Competition in Japan. In the event’s 30-year history, she was the first woman and the first German to win First Prize. She won further First Prizes at various competitions in Germany, Italy and Poland, and also as both oboist and pianist in the UK. Viola Wilmsen has held a teaching post for oboe at Lübeck Musikhochschule since 2015. She teaches masterclasses in Germany and abroad, and is often called upon to be a jury member at international competitions.

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Kimiko Imani (piano)

Born in Japan, pianist Kimiko Imani made her successful début as soloist with the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra in Suntory Hall. She continued to make a great number of appearances with orchestras in Japan and Germany while studying in Detmold toward a concert exam diploma under the tutelage of Prof. Anatol Ugorski. Awarded with the Prize of the Society for the Advancement of Culture in Westphalia (GWK), Kimiko Imani is a highly dedicated chamber musician. She is invited on a regular basis to perform at international festivals and concert series in Europe and Asia (including the Tokyo Spring, SONY Music Foundation, the Palau in Barcelona, and the Francis Poulenc Whitsun Music Festival in Berry, France). Kimiko Imani’s musical partners include eminent musicians such as bassoonist Sergio Azzolini and oboist...
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Born in Japan, pianist Kimiko Imani made her successful début as soloist with the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra in Suntory Hall. She continued to make a great number of appearances with orchestras in Japan and Germany while studying in Detmold toward a concert exam diploma under the tutelage of Prof. Anatol Ugorski. Awarded with the Prize of the Society for the Advancement of Culture in Westphalia (GWK), Kimiko Imani is a highly dedicated chamber musician. She is invited on a regular basis to perform at international festivals and concert series in Europe and Asia (including the Tokyo Spring, SONY Music Foundation, the Palau in Barcelona, and the Francis Poulenc Whitsun Music Festival in Berry, France).
Kimiko Imani’s musical partners include eminent musicians such as bassoonist Sergio Azzolini and oboist Maurice Bourgue. Together, they formed the Maurice Bourgue Trio in 2011, an outstanding ensemble that has performed at important international classical music venues and has just recorded its first CD.
Imani has made further chamber music recordings for GWK Records and Deutschlandradio. She also pursues an artistic collaboration with violinist Keiko Urushihara. Imani’s profound knowledge of oboe repertoire has led her to perform with world class soloists including Albrecht Mayer, Emanuel Abbühl, Jonathan Kelly, Lucas Macías Navarro and Ivan Podyomov leading to engagements at oboe competitions and masterclasses of worldwide recognition including the Musicale de Villecroze and the Slokar International Academy. She currently teaches at Berlin University of the Arts and the Hanns Eisler University of Music in Berlin.

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Composer(s)

Bohuslav Martinů

Bohuslav Martinů was a Czech composer of modern classical music. Martinů wrote 6 symphonies, 15 operas, 14 ballet scores and a large body of orchestral, chamber, vocal and instrumental works. Martinů became a violinist in the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, and taught music in his home town. In 1923 Martinů left Czechoslovakia for Paris, and deliberately withdrew from the Romantic style in which he had been trained. In the 1930s he experimented with expressionism and constructivism, and became an admirer of current European technical developments, exemplified by his orchestral works Half-time and La Bagarre. He also adopted jazz idioms, for instance in his La revue de cuisine ('Kitchen Revue'). In the early 1930s he found his main fount for compositional style, the...
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Bohuslav Martinů was a Czech composer of modern classical music. Martinů wrote 6 symphonies, 15 operas, 14 ballet scores and a large body of orchestral, chamber, vocal and instrumental works. Martinů became a violinist in the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, and taught music in his home town. In 1923 Martinů left Czechoslovakia for Paris, and deliberately withdrew from the Romantic style in which he had been trained. In the 1930s he experimented with expressionism and constructivism, and became an admirer of current European technical developments, exemplified by his orchestral works Half-time and La Bagarre. He also adopted jazz idioms, for instance in his La revue de cuisine ("Kitchen Revue").
In the early 1930s he found his main fount for compositional style, the neoclassicism as developed by Stravinsky. With this, he expanded to become a prolific composer, composing chamber, orchestral, choral and instrumental works at a fast rate. His use of the piano obbligato became his signature. His Concerto Grosso and the Double Concerto for Two String Orchestras, Piano and Timpani are among his best known works from this period. Among his operas, Julietta and The Greek Passion are considered the finest. He is compared with Prokofiev and Bartók in his innovative incorporation of Central European ethnomusicology into his music. He continued to use Bohemian and Moravian folk melodies throughout his oeuvre, usually nursery rhymes—for instance in Otvírání studánek ("The Opening of the Wells").
His symphonic career began when he emigrated to the United States in 1941, fleeing the German invasion of France, to compose his six symphonies, which were performed by all the major US orchestras. Eventually Bohuslav Martinů returned to live in Europe for two years starting in 1953, then was back in New York until returning to Europe for good in May 1956. He died in Switzerland in August 1959.

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Leoš Janáček

Leoš Janáček was a Czech composer and folklorist. He was inspired by Moravian and other Slavic folk music to create an original, modern musical style. Until 1895 he devoted himself mainly to folkloristic research and his early musical output was influenced by contemporaries such as Antonín Dvořák. His later, mature works incorporate his earlier studies of national folk music in a modern, highly original synthesis, first evident in the opera Jenůfa, which was premiered in 1904 in Brno. The success of Jenůfa (often called the 'Moravian national opera') at Prague in 1916 gave Janáček access to the world's great opera stages. Janáček's later works are his most celebrated. They include operas such as Káťa Kabanová and The Cunning Little Vixen, the...
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Leoš Janáček was a Czech composer and folklorist. He was inspired by Moravian and other Slavic folk music to create an original, modern musical style.
Until 1895 he devoted himself mainly to folkloristic research and his early musical output was influenced by contemporaries such as Antonín Dvořák. His later, mature works incorporate his earlier studies of national folk music in a modern, highly original synthesis, first evident in the opera Jenůfa, which was premiered in 1904 in Brno. The success of Jenůfa (often called the "Moravian national opera") at Prague in 1916 gave Janáček access to the world's great opera stages. Janáček's later works are his most celebrated. They include operas such as Káťa Kabanová and The Cunning Little Vixen, the Sinfonietta, the Glagolitic Mass, the rhapsody Taras Bulba, two string quartets, and other chamber works. Along with Antonín Dvořák and Bedřich Smetana, he is considered one of the most important Czech composers.

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Press

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01.
Suita for Oboe and Piano (1960): I Pastorale
05:00
(Klement Slavický) Viola Wilmsen, Kimiko Imani
02.
Suita for Oboe and Piano (1960): II Scherzo
03:59
(Klement Slavický) Viola Wilmsen, Kimiko Imani
03.
Suita for Oboe and Piano (1960): III Triste
07:53
(Klement Slavický) Viola Wilmsen, Kimiko Imani
04.
Suita for Oboe and Piano (1960): IV Bachanale rustico
05:20
(Klement Slavický) Viola Wilmsen, Kimiko Imani
05.
Zdravas Kralovno (Salve Regina) - Aria from the opera Jen?fa
02:30
(Leoš Janáček) Viola Wilmsen, Kimiko Imani
06.
Sonata for Oboe and Piano Op. 85: I Tranquillo con moto
09:08
(Hans Gál) Viola Wilmsen, Kimiko Imani
07.
Sonata for Oboe and Piano Op. 85: II Pavane. Allegretto
05:25
(Hans Gál) Viola Wilmsen, Kimiko Imani
08.
Sonata for Oboe and Piano Op. 85: III Allegro sostenuto assai
08:28
(Hans Gál) Viola Wilmsen, Kimiko Imani
09.
Opu?tný Milý (The forsaken lover)
01:24
(Bohuslav Martinů) Viola Wilmsen, Kimiko Imani
10.
Povedz ?e Mi, Povedz (So tell me)
02:47
(Bohuslav Martinů) Viola Wilmsen, Kimiko Imani
11.
Smutný Milý (The unhappy lover)
02:49
(Bohuslav Martinů) Viola Wilmsen, Kimiko Imani
12.
Píse? Nábo?ná (Religious Song)
02:33
(Bohuslav Martinů) Viola Wilmsen, Kimiko Imani
13.
Suita for Oboe and Piano Op. 17 (1939): I Furioso
04:18
(Pavel Haas) Viola Wilmsen, Kimiko Imani
14.
Suita for Oboe and Piano Op. 17 (1939): II Con Fuoco
05:52
(Pavel Haas) Viola Wilmsen, Kimiko Imani
15.
Suita for Oboe and Piano Op. 17 (1939): III Moderato
06:55
(Pavel Haas) Viola Wilmsen, Kimiko Imani
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