KEISUKE WAKAO, Oboe plays Bach, Mozart, Britten and Prokofiev with friends of the Boston Symphony Orchestra PTC 5186 018 DSD recorded

 

Johann Christian Bach
Between 1762 and 1767, Johann Christian Bach composed the Opus 8 quartet series: six two-movement quartets (originally) for flute, violin, viola and cello. The B-flat Quartet is the sixth and first appeared in print in 1772 in London together with the other five quartets as Op. 8. As he had done in his Op. 4 Trios, Bach was still clearly basing his work on examples by Sammartini and Tartini; however, in contrast to the Trios, he goes more for a contrapuntal-motivic movement technique. The simple elegance which characterizes most of his work is equally captivating in the Quartet in B-flat recorded here. As the representative of a galant, yet technically well-balanced style, the youngest son of Johann Sebastian Bach exerted an important influence on the generation to come - thus also on Mozart, who wrote as follows to his father with regard to Bach‘s death: „You probably already know that Bach the Englishman has died? - What a loss for the world of music!"

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart wrote his Oboe Quartet in F, K. 370 in early 1771 in Munich for the oboe-player Friedrich Ramm. The intimacy of Mozart‘s chamber music written during the last decade of his life is portrayed here in an impressive manner: following the solo presentation of the theme in the first movement, the accompanying voices intervene alternately during the musical development and turn the erstwhile monologue of the oboe into a dialogue. The second movement is dominated by an expressive, aria-like cantabile theme in D minor, the suspense of which is resolved only in the concluding Rondeau. The middle part of this final movement is unusual: the oboe plays in 4/4 time against the 6/8-time movement of the accompanying instruments, so that the metrical accents clash with one another. Afterwards, the Rondo theme returns one more time, finally leading into a coda which is dominated in virtuoso fashion by the oboe.

Benjamin Britten
The Phantasy Quartet for Oboe and String Trio, Op. 2, which was written in the autumn of 1932, was already the second work in this genre composed by Britten within a year‘s time. The Phantasy in F minor for String Quartet had been completed some nine months earlier. Britten used this one-movement form, which allowed the composer a reasonable amount of freedom, in order to experiment with elements of the sonata form, to more or less combine varying structures.
The Phantasy ends in a type of arch with faint marching string sounds, which as a sort of prologue at the beginning had laid a carpet of sound under the oboe-cantilena soaring above. Although the work consists of apparently completely different types of episodes held together by the mirrored reprise-like return of the themes from the Introduction and the Allegro, there is still a whole row of motivic-thematic references, be they rhythmic elements, pastoral sequenzas or harmonic parameters. The dramatic course of the Phantasy is embodied by the „conversation" between the oboe and the strings: at times holding a monologue, at others garrulously interrupting one another, and at yet others agreeing with one another totally.

Sergei Prokofiev
When Sergei Prokofiev finally moved to Paris in 1923, he found himself in a musical metropolis in which many of his countrymen had found a new home; such as Igor Stravinsky for example, or the great ballet impresario Diaghilev. After all, ballet played a central role in Paris. Therefore, it is hardly surprising that Prokofiev, too, wrote composition after composition for the ballet. In 1924, he made the following note: „I accepted a commission from a touring company to write a small ballet; the troupe wanted to close its evening performance with some short‚ chamber-music-like ballets, which would be played by an ensemble of about five musicians. I decided to compose something for the following instruments: oboe, clarinet, violin, viola and double-bass. Basically, however, this story based on circus life – The Trapeze – was not the decisive factor in my composing a work for chamber music, as this could also be performed without the background story. That is why it contains a number of rhythmically complicated sections, such as for example the passage in 10/8 time, for which the ballet master had to carry the can. Nevertheless, the ballet The Trapeze was performed in a number of cities in Germany and Italy and was, in fact, a success."
Even when he was still very young, Prokofiev was always trying to establish a style of his own, preferring to turn his back on trends and tendencies in contemporary music, or at least to deal with them in his own way. This can also be seen in his Quintet Op. 39: although here he ‚mirrors‘ the Grotesque, which was very popular in the early 20th century, Prokofiev manages to present it alternately as a grotesque farce, as a fluttering Humoresque or as a meditative Fantastique. This is emphasised by its tone language, which frequently consists of eccentric sound combinations and rhythmic virtuosity. Even when the Quintet is not performed as a necessary part of understanding the circus story, one can still picture in one‘s inner eye the various situations in and around the circus ring, and it is hardly surprising that not only is this Quintet steeped in a lively variety of ideas, it also conjures up the melancholy moments of circus life.

Johann Sebastian Bach
The Easter Oratorio is a typical example of the so-called parody techniques which Bach often applied to his compositions: i.e. transforming the text from a secular cantata, while using the same music, into a church cantata. Bach composed the shepherd‘s cantata „Entfliehet, verschwindet, entweichet, ihr Sorgen" BWV 249a for the birthday of Duke Christian von Sachsen Weißenfels on February 23, 1725. However, only the libretto of the shepherd‘s cantata remains to us, not the score. Nevertheless, Bach scholars have discovered that the Easter Oratorio contains the same music. However, with regard to the introductory Sinfonia, the second movement of which – the Adagio – was written for oboe and strings, they are not sure whether it was already performed in the first version, or whether it was not heard until the première of the Easter Oratorio. This was given by Bach on Easter Sunday, April 1, 1725 in Leipzig, which was only six weeks after the Duke‘s birthday. The concerto-like two-part structure (fast – slow) of the Sinfonia - referring to the Italian tradition - gives the Bach scholar reason to suspect that this, in fact, consists of parts taken from a larger instrumental sinfonia from his Cöthen period and inserted into the Easter Oratorio.

Keisuke Wakao
Assistant Principal Oboe, Boston Symphony Orchestra
Principal Oboe, Boston Pops Orchestra
Keisuke Wakao was appointed assistant principal oboe of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and principal oboe of the Boston Pops Orchestra in the fall of 1990 having previously performed with the New Japan Philharmonic under Seiji Ozawa. He has also made numerous solo appearances, including performances with the Boston Pops Orchestra under John Williams, the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra under Kazuyoshi Akiyama, and the Tokyo City Philharmonic Orchestra. Mr. Wakao was a finalist in the 1988 Lucarelli International Oboe Competition and a participant at the 1994 Spoleto Festival in Italy. He made his Tokyo recital debut in 1997, followed by another recital with pianist Christoph Eschenbach at Sapporo's 1998 Pacific Music Festival. A native of Tokyo, Mr. Wakao received his performance diploma from the Manhattan School of Music, where he studied with New York Philharmonic principal oboe Joseph Robinson. While a Fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center, he worked with Alfred Genovese and Ralph Gomberg. A talented teacher, Mr. Wakao founded the annual Keisuke Wakao Oboe Camp in Tokyo in 1988 and is currently on the faculty of the New England Conservatory of Music. Recently, Keisuke Wakao played principal oboe with the Super World Orchestra in Japan and has also served as artistic director of the Daikanyama Hillside Terrace Music Festival.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“..splendid musical ensemble playing, refined and spatially realistic recording sound”
---Luister, (October 2003)

“Pentatone's SACD featuring oboist Keisuke Wakao is a beauty. Wakao, assistant principal oboe of the Boston Symphony, has an active career as well in concerts and teaching. Here he is with other superb musicians associated with the Boston Symphony in a varied program featuring Mozart's Quartet K. 370 and Prokofiev's Quintet Op. 39. These recordings were made in September/October 2002 in Mechanics Hall in Worcester, Mass, produced by Everett Porter, who did a fine job in capturing the sound of the ensembles.”
--Robert Benson, classicalcdreview

“A finely-balanced program of works featuring the oboe virtuoso in various chamber aggregations with strings, and in one selection also with clarinet…The recording venue was a hall in Worcester, Massachusetts, and the multichannel option places the players much more realistically on the soundstage than the two-channel, plus giving a hint of the hall's acoustics around the listener.”
--John Sunier, audiophile audition

“The sonics here are first rate. Definitely one of the best sounding SACDs I've so far listened to.”
--SA-CD.net