R Strauss
Oboe Concerto in D; Horn Concerto No. 1 etc
Andreas Fosdal (oboe), Jakob Keiding (horn); Copenhagen Philharmonic/Toshiyuki Kamioka
Orchid Classics ORC100261 77:38 mins
If you substituted the Second for the First Horn Concerto, this would be a programme of the most subtle delights, capturing the mature Strauss at his most relaxed and intimate. But the performances still wouldn’t quite carry it, because the interpretation of the Oboe Concerto proceeds in fits and starts. At first you admire the care Andreas Rosdal takes to articulate the long opening paragraph. But there’s a sluggishness in later stages of the first movement, the Andante and part of the finale which gets in the way of what ought to be a pretty flow. Whose fault? I’d be inclined to blame Toshiyuki Kamioka, chief conductor of the Copenhagen Phil – yes, they really are called that – when this recording was made. But it’s hard to fault the pacing of the other works. The amiable First Horn Concerto, an accomplished, characterful early work, makes a perfect showcase for the suavities of another orchestral principal, Jakob Keiding, and the delicious suite from the incidental music Strauss provided for Hofmannsthal’s adaptation(s) of Molière’s Le bourgeois gentilhomme shows no want of vivacity. All the woodwind solos are character-perfect, the swagger of fencing-master and tailors has full focus, the neoclassical style of the Minuet and Act 2 Intermezzo is inflected with perfect character, and the Dinner, with its wry quotations from Meyerbeer, Wagner, Verdi and Strauss himself, is tasty in all courses. Warmer sound might have helped the Oboe Concerto, but it’s fine for the other two works. David Nice
