Featured Selection: Oboe Concerti by Mozart & Strauss

Wolfgang A. Mozart: Oboe Concerto in C Major, K. 314 (Cadenzas by Boyd/Lester/Bourgue)

Richard Strauss: Oboe Concerto in D Major

Douglas Boyd, Oboe

The Chamber Orchestra of Europe

Paavo Berglund, Conductor

The two concerti heard on this release were written 168 years apart, Mozart's in 1777 when he was just 21, Strauss' in 1945 when he was 81. Mozart's work is a buoyant work, full of beautiful melody. It is perhaps better known as the D major flute concerto, into which form the composer transposed it later in 1777, and in which form it was known for more than 150 years. The original manuscript was lost until 1949, the year of the death of Richard Strauss, for whom Mozart was "the pole star guiding all my effort." Indeed, his 1945 Oboe Concerto can be said to possess the spirit of that great master.