MDG Scene  903 1586-6

Stereo/Multichannel Hybrid

Classical

Martinů: Concerto for Oboe and Small Orchestra, Dorati: Divertimento for Oboe and Orchestra, Holliger: Sonata for Oboe solo

Yeon-Hee Kwak (oboe)
Münchner Rundfunkorchester
Johannes Goritzki (conductor)


Award-Winning Performances
Since her debut CD in 2001 Yeon-Hee Kwak, the winner of two Echo Klassik awards, has been known as the “Paganini of the Oboe.” Now she pays homage to three first-class oboe composers of the twentieth century. Together with the Munich Radio Orchestra under the conductor Johannes Goritzki she plays the Oboe Concertos of Bohuslav Martinu and Antal Dorati and – as an encore – the Sonata for Solo Oboe by Heinz Holliger.

Fascinating Display
Holliger composed the sonata for himself during 1956-57 and then also revised it himself some forty years later. Yeon-Hee Kwak takes very obvious delight in this fully mature work, now producing exotic tones on her instrument, then bringing out its humorous and lyrical-expressive sides, and finally engaging in frolicking play. Martinu’s oboe concerto of 1955 is of such complicatedly difficult virtuosity that major cuts had to be made in the cadenzas to make it playable when it was first premiered. Today it has become an outstanding standard work for ambitious soloists. The apparent ease with which Kwak masters the trill chains and changes of position is absolutely fascinating!

Sensational Feats
Two string orchestras, nine wind instruments, together with harp, celesta, timpani, and a percussion ensemble: Antal Dorati chose a magnificent and no less unique instrumental lineup for his divertimento. Actually, his assignment had originally been “merely” to compose a concerto for a wind instrument and orchestra for a company anniversary in 1976, but his love for the oboe was so great that he seized the opportunity and paid full honors to this instrument in this commissioned work. The result is a “diversion,“ in the best eighteenth-century sense: it is amusing entertainment for the audience and offers the soloist the opportunity for all sorts of sensational oboe feats.

One-Woman Show
Yeon-Hee Kwak has enjoyed an extraordinarily successful career ever since coming to Germany in 1993 to continue her studies. The Korean oboist is the prizewinner of many renowned competitions. In 2009 she left the Bavarian Radio Orchestra in Munich to dedicate herself on a full-time basis to her international career as a soloist and teacher.