SONATES ET FANTAISIES FRANÇAISES

Sonatas and Fantasies Françaises
Bozza, Pierne, Murgier, Godard, Fontayne, Hugon, Poulenc, Sancan, Dutilleux
The oboe has always played a very special role in French music, not only thanks to the large amount of excellent works composed for it but also because of a tradition of excellence and innovation in a instrument making that stretches back to the Baroque period and continues to this day.

Berlioz describes the oboe in his Grand traité d’instrumentation et d’orchestration modernes (1844) as “a melodic instrument above all else, one that is rustic in character and full of gentleness. Feelings of naive elegance, quiet innocence, peaceful joy and the sorrow of a gentle nature can all be expressed by the oboe in the happiest of ways”.

The first part of this programme introduces us to the oboe’s pastoral character by means of a few fantasias and miniatures: their music is light, virtuoso, entertaining and sublimely delicate, but is also filled with melancholy and can be deeply moving.

Berlioz then expressed reservations about the oboe’s ability to shine when called upon to express “suffering, violent anger, threat or heroic exaltation. Its voice is small and tenderly fresh, and loses all strength and naturalness in such cases”.

Thanks to innovations in the instrument’s manufacture since Berlioz wrote these words, I find that the oboe’s range of expression now allows it to access these extreme feelings as well; this is what has guided the choice of works in the second part of this programme.

It took me some time to decide to record these demanding works, and it’s a real pleasure to be reunited with my long-time friend and musical partner Olivier Peyrebrune for the occasion.

We have been performing some of these pieces for many years now, but it’s always an immense pleasure to rediscover them and to explore them in greater depth. Others are much less well known — one of them is still unpublished — but they seduced us with their virtuosity that is never gratuitous, their refinement and their subtle elegance.