Affetuoso: Oboe Sonatas 1700-1750

These recordings of Baroque sonatas and suites for oboe and continuo were originally released on two LPs in 1978 and 1980. The early date might dissuade some buyers, for it was just around this time that a new generation of players trained in playing period instruments began to tease out the individual personalities of the Baroque composers, Telemann above all, who wrote music for the daily use of princes, counts, and city officials. Yet this collection can stand with any disc of Baroque oboe music recorded since that time. Oboist Paul Dombrecht is equally skilled at realizing all the Baroque oboe's multiple personalities -- it had a larger dynamic range that a modern instrument, if not so sweet a sound, and it could deliver anything from quasi-pastoral horn blasts (hear the passage that opens Telemann's Suite in G minor from "Der getreue Music-Meister," at the beginning of disc 2) to quiet, ingratiating airs. All of the second disc is devoted to Telemann, whose crucial humor is not lost on Dombrecht, while the first includes a variety of English and German composers, each set up in a defined compositional space. The continuo duo of Wieland Kuijken (on an early cello, curiously, rather than a viola da gamba) and Robert Köhnen (on harpsichord) matches his slight tempo liberties expertly, and all the music is as pleasant and relaxing to hear in our day as it was in its own. The notes illuminate the diverse functions of the early oboist -- there were "city oboists," who played in ensemble music intended for civic functions; "chamber oboists," court players who would have performed music much like that by Telemann here; and oboists who were members of military bands. Traces of the kinds of playing that would have been associated with each of these are expertly transferred into these performances, in which the sound of the oboe ranges from piercing to gentle. ~ James Manheim, All Music Guide