Music from the ever-inventive Georg Philipp Telemann has long enchanted me. His is music of never ceasing discovery. In these performances of some of Telemann's magnificent Fantasies, oboist and pianist Pauline Oostenrijk is a delightful guide. These are performances to savor, made even more enjoyable with the excellent sound quality provided by recording engineer Tom Peeters in DSD256.
Fantasia! Dialogue for One, Pauline Oostenrijk oboe & piano. Cobra Records 2022 (DSD256 - binaural, stereo and multichannel) HERE
Each time I listen to a recording by Pauline Osstenrijk, I feel privileged by an invitation to a very personal, very intimate, engagement with her music. Her performances are just that way.
I first encountered Oostenrijk in her recording The Notes Are Swallows from Cobra Records. There, as here, the setting is simply Oostenrijk and her instrument as she explores music with deep personal meaning for her. There, I was very pleasantly surprised not just by the excellence of her playing on the oboe, but also as a pianist. I've been a fan ever since. At the time, Cobra Records founder and recording engineer, Tom Peeters, told me, "Pauline was very nervous to do this. She'd played piano for many years before taking up the oboe, but it had been some time since she performed on piano. But she plays so well. And I encouraged her that she would be wonderful. And she is." See my review of The Notes are Swallows HERE.
In this her fourth release from Cobra Records, Oostenrijk has continued to gain confidence to perform for us on piano, complementing her superb musicianship as an oboist. For twenty-five years was the principal oboist for the Residentie Orchestra of The Hague. Today she teaches at the Conservatory of Amsterdam and pursues an active chamber music schedule of performances. Composers such as Louis Andriessen (To Pauline O) and Arne Werkman have written compositions for her. The point of mentioning all of this is to illustrate that she is an artist of some stature and well worth investing some of your time to hear.
And Fantasia! is a nice place to begin your acquaintance if you've not found her already. Telemann's Fantasies are demanding works. They are not mindless table music. Indeed, they require consummate musicianship with quite frequent virtuosity. When a perform can provide this, they are sublime. And Oostenjijk delivers in spades.
Telemann composed his Fantasies for transverse flute. Pauline Oostenrijk plays them on a modern oboe. His Fantasies for harpsichord are played on a modern Steinway grand piano. Does any of this matter? Not for me. Not if one's interest is in the music and provided one is willing to experience the very different sonorities these modern instruments provide.
Oostenrijk discusses this in her liner notes. While Telemann's fantasias were adapted to be played by a variety of melody instruments, she doubts that these works were performed on an oboe in Telemann's day. They include some high notes that were impossible on the baroque oboe. On the modern oboe, however, with its greater number of keys, they are playable. But with the modern oboe, "the sound quality has also changed due to the pursuit of a more brilliant and projecting sound."
So, don't expect period instruments here. This is a very modern sound quality. And this Oostenrijk acknowledges in her letter to Telemann contained in the liner notes: "In recent years I have mainly focused on some of your Fantasies and they continue to fascinate me. On the one hand they are brilliant and demand the necessary virtuosity; on the other hand, there is a wonderful simplicity in them. The various emotional worlds alternate rapidly, but they succeed each other with surprising naturalness. but whether the musical instruments I play would have charmed you, I am less sure. You might turn in your grave!"
Well, no grave turning for me. I shall simply enjoy these performances again and again.
Pauline Oostenrijk discusses Telemann and performance of his Fantasies on modern instruments in this YouTube video you can see HERE.
The sound quality on this recording is once again magnificent. Tom Peeters, founder of Cobra Records, is an excellent recording engineer whose new releases I am always eager to hear. In this recording, Tom achieves his signature balance of placing instruments in a realistic sounding, natural acoustic space. There is fine resolution of detail with a spaciousness to the sound that is addictive, for both solo piano and solo oboe. I listened to both the binaural and stereo versions of this recording; each superb in their distinctive ways. For more about Tom's binaural recording process, see HERE. To read a conversation with Tom about his recording philosophy and how he works with his artists, see HERE.
Recommended.
Images courtesy of Cobra Records and Pauline Oostenrijk.
