Yeon-Hee Kwak - Oboe Solo (2006)

An hour of music for solo oboe, anyone? Don't knock it until you try it. This album is an exemplary effort not only by the somehow appropriately named oboist Yeon-Hee Kwak but also by the engineers at Germany's MDG label, who provide a resonant castle-hall setting that perfectly illuminates (resonates?) the registral effects on which oboe music depends. The program is diverse and challenges both Kwak's technical and expressive abilities, opening with Bach, whose absolute music transcended the distinction. The Partita for solo oboe, BWV 1013, is a transcription of a partita for solo flute, and the concluding Tango-Etudes of Astor Piazzolla were also originally flute works. These tough little pieces, real etudes that suggest tango rhythms only gently, work beautifully on the oboe, which takes on a rough, clicky sound that provides what Piazzolla sometimes approvingly called "mud" in the performance. Other oboists should take note of Kwak's successful transfer of these works to her instrument (no outside arranger is credited). The purest examples of virtuosity on the disc are the Six etudes for oboe of contemporary French composer Gilles Silvestrini, each evoking a different Impressionist painting. These include various extended techniques, including, in the third etude (Monet: Boulevard des Capuchines), a fearsome demand of circular breathing in the process of producing two separate lines -- creating a strong illusion that two oboes are playing at once. The virtues of the Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach Sonata for oboe solo, by contrast, are expressive; sample the opening Poco Adagio movement to hear Kwak push the oboe to its emotional limits. The audience for this disc may be concentrated among wind players, but it's an impressive instrumental display that any listener can appreciate.