<<  -- 4 --  Jennifer Paull    REMINISCENT RETROSPECTIVES

Although only required in such small numbers in the symphony orchestra, few are the wind players who wish to specialise in quintets or chamber ensembles. Brass instruments have their own literature, so do saxophone quartets. However, music for the kaleidoscope of one family's own instrumental colouring, represents but a drop in the ocean of the noble repertoire of the string quartet.

Smitten by the oboe d'amore when I was a student, there were still two unknown members of the oboe family that would take me a few more years to discover. The bass oboe discovery came during a performance of The Planets under Charles Groves as he then was, in Liverpool. What a wonderful rich timbre! Why was there so little music written for it? The answer is simple; because few composers have know it was there. There was, and still is only one way to demonstrate that the whole oboe family does exist -- by playing its every member! Which comes first, the rare oboe chicken or the glorious repertoire egg?

The musette took a few more years to track down. This happened in Persepolis. I was there with Bruno Maderna who conducted one of his compositions with The Hague's Residentie Orchestra. This work called for several oboes and flutes to be played by one soloist of each family. Lothar Faber performed upon musette, oboe, oboe d'amore and cor anglais. My mind was already wondering how they would sound together. What if I added the colour of the bass oboe next to which I had been sitting in the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra for performances of Delius and Holst.? I think at that very moment, the idea of working for all the rare oboes took root in my mind.

Any status quo is hard to modify. Stravinsky was obliged to compose for smaller ensembles through economic necessity, to save the Ballets Russes in the early days of the last century. For many years since the 19th century, when the orchestral die and proportions were cast, increasing numbers of instrumental musicians have been struggling to belong to relatively few orchestras. The few become fewer with every passing year. Not all musicians are soloists with the talent of an Isaac Stern! No school of music imposes a numerus clausus as it opens it doors to as many flute and oboe students as it does those of the 'cello and violin. Finding the means to be heard and counted as a musician has always been a challenge. Researching, instigating or commissioning alternative chamber repertoire can help. As this is mostly, and inevitably less well-known, it is often therefore less attractive to the audience. In the words of Berlioz;

'The luck of having talent is not enough; one must also have a talent for luck.'

- Louis-Hector Berlioz, composer (1803-1869)