Heinz Holliger to Return to ECM New Series

courtesy of Jensen Artists

During my tenure with Examiner.com, I was able to pay considerable attention to recordings of Swiss oboist Heinz Holliger for ECM New Series releases. However, according to my archival database, I have not written about him since August of 2014. Therefore, I am happy to report that Holliger has returned to ECM with a new album that provides a rich survey of chamber music composed for oboe over the course of the twentieth century. The title of the album is Éventail, the title of a poem by Stéphane Mallarmé, which was subsequently set by both Maurice Ravel and Claude Debussy; and the only composer that predates the twentieth century is Camille Saint-Saëns with a short composition entitled “Le rossignol” (the nightingale). This album will be released one week from today; and, as tends to be expected, Amazon.com has created a Web page for processing pre-orders.

Holliger has two accompanists on this recording. One is the pianist Anton Kernjak, who had performed on the previous album, presenting music by Robert Schumann and Holliger himself, which I had discussed in August of 2014. The other is harpist Alice Belugou, who was recruited to provide accompaniment for André Jolivet’s “Controversia.” For his part Holliger performs selections for both oboe and oboe d’amore. This deeper instrument actually serves as a “substitute.” It first appears in the performance of Debussy’s “Syrinx,” which was originally written for solo flute. It then returns for another Debussy composition for clarinet and piano, simply entitled “Petite pièce.”

Taken as a whole, this album runs the risk of being “too much of a good thing.” Fortunately, all of the tracks are relatively short, including the individual tracks for three-movement sonatas by Saint-Saëns and Robert Casadesus. Nevertheless, it is unclear whether or not Holliger expects the attentive listener to appreciate how the individual compositions on this album relate to each other through juxtaposition (if at all). Having listened to this album several times by now, I find myself recognizing the pieces I have previously encountered; but I am still dealing with the process of making acquaintance with the less familiar offerings.