Ralph Vaughan Williams; James MacMillan - Oboe Concertos (Nicholas Daniel)

Information

Composer: Ralph Vaughan Williams; James MacMillan; Benjamin Britten

• (01) Vaughan Williams - Concerto for oboe and strings in A minor
• (04) MacMillan - 'One' for chamber orchestra
• (05) MacMillan - Oboe Concerto
• (08) Britten - Suite on English Folk Tunes 'A Time There Was', Op. 90

Nicholas Daniel, oboe

Britten Sinfonia

James MacMillan, conductor

Date: 2015

Label: Harmonia Mundi

http://www.harmoniamundi.com/#!/albums/2083

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Review

The Britten Sinfonia’s latest offering launches with a deeply understanding performance of Vaughan Williams’s Oboe Concerto from Nicholas Daniel. It was with this very work that he first made his mark as winner of the 1980 BBC Young Musician of Year competition and, to judge from the present display, it’s a piece that still means a very great deal to him. Not only do his flawless discipline, liquid tone, exquisite chiaroscuro and seemingly superhuman breath control ravish the ear, he also encourages his colleagues to give of their polished and raptly committed best. Time really does seem to stand still as the evening hush descends towards the end of first movement; and when the pace slows to Lento for the work’s final full flowering at eight after fig V (or 7'01"), it distils an unforgettable sense of blissful wonder here.

Daniel proves just as convincing an advocate of the 24-minute concerto that James MacMillan fashioned for him in 2010. At its core is a substantial reworking of an earlier piece for solo oboe entitled In angustiis (‘In Distress’), penned as a cathartic response to the horrific events of 9/11, and whose raw emotion and sorrowful anguish throw into bolder relief the motoric rhythms and feisty humour of the shorter movements. It’s a strongly communicative, sincere work that continues to lure me back, and Daniel’s contribution is past praise in its virtuosity and eloquence. MacMillan himself partners with sympathy and also secures finely chiselled accounts of his own pithy One for chamber orchestra (2012) as well as Britten’s haunted and haunting 1974 Suite on English Folk Tunes – the latter both more sharply focused and, in the valedictory ‘Lord Melbourne’, daringly spacious than either Rattle’s CBSO or Bedford’s Northern Sinfonia versions (EMI, 6/86; Naxos 12/98). Excellent sound and truthful balance throughout: this anthology merits a strong recommendation.

-- Andrew Achenbach, Gramophone

More reviews:
https://www.classical-music.com/reviews/britten-macmillan-vaughan-williams-2/

https://www.allmusic.com/album/ralph-vaughan-williams-james-macmillan-oboe-concertos-mw0002832417

https://www.ft.com/content/02e6ff08-e700-11e4-afb7-00144feab7de

https://www.limelightmagazine.com.au/reviews/vaughan-williams-macmillan-oboe-concertos-nicolas-daniel/

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/may/24/vaughan-williams-macmillan-oboe-concertos-nicholas-daniel-britten-sinfonia-bravura-display

https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/music/nicholas-daniel-oboe-britten-sinfonia-james-macmillan-vaughan-williams-macmillan-oboe-concertos-album-review-1.2225410

https://www.audaud.com/vaughan-williams-concerto-for-oboe-and-strings-in-a-minor-macmillan-one-for-chamber-orchestra-oboe-concerto-britten-suite-on-english-folk-tunes-a-time-there-was-nicholas-daniel-oboe-britten/

https://www.amazon.com/Vaughan-Williams-Oboe-Concerto-MacMillan/dp/B00TGKEELQ

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Ralph Vaughan Williams (12 October 1872 – 26 August 1958) was an English composer of symphonies, chamber music, opera, choral music, and film scores. Strongly influenced by Tudor music and English folk-song, his output marked a decisive break in British music from its German-dominated style of the 19th century. Vaughan Williams is among the best-known British symphonists, noted for his very wide range of moods, from stormy and impassioned to tranquil, from mysterious to exuberant. His works have continued to be a staple of the British concert repertoire, with all his major compositions have been recorded.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ralph_Vaughan_Williams

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James MacMillan (born 16 July 1959) is a Scottish classical composer and conductor. He studied composition at the University of Edinburgh with Rita McAllister and Kenneth Leighton, and at Durham University with John Casken. MacMillan came to the attention of the classical establishment with the BBC Scottish SO's premiere of The Confession of Isobel Gowdie at the Proms in 1990. Further successes have included his second opera The Sacrifice and the St John Passion. MacMillan's music is infused with the spiritual and the political. His Roman Catholic faith has inspired many of his sacred works.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_MacMillan

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Nicholas Daniel (born 9 January 1962) is a British oboist and conductor. He was educated at Salisbury Cathedral School and the Purcell School, an won the BBC Young Musician of the Year Competition in 1980. Daniel has been a concerto soloist with many of the world’s leading orchestras and conductors. As chamber musician, he is a founder member of the award-winning Britten Sinfonia, the Haffner Wind Ensemble and the Britten Oboe Quartet. Daniel is also highly sought after as a teacher, being Professor at the Trossingen Musikhochschule in Germany and at the Guildhall School of Music in London.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicholas_Daniel
http://nicholasdaniel.co.uk/

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