Franca, Luciano / Betti, Stefania
Robert Nicholas Charles Bochsa: Nocturnes For Oboe Andp
Nicholas Bochsa, Rodolphe Kreutzer and Jean-Louis Duport were all among the greatest virtuoso players of their respective instruments: the harp, the violin, and the cello. All three authored important methods and collections of Etudes for their instrument which are all still in use for the education of young performers. All three, however, were also skilled composers who demonstrate genius, imagination, and brilliant intelligence in their (numerous) works. Bochsa chose to create several Nocturnes for his instrument, the harp, and other instruments (the violin and the cello respectively) in close collaboration with other virtuoso/composers. The result is impressive, since, in spite of the towering musical personalities of all composers involved, the pieces they created sound convincing, consistent, seamlessly woven, and compellingly written. The atmosphere is smooth and warm, the balance among the instruments perfect, and the roles equally balanced. These rarely played pieces acquire a still fresher sound in the version for oboe and harp recorded in this Da Vinci Classics album. Indeed, the fact that the oboe is played through breathing almost enhances the vocal component of this music, which, indeed, is so powerfully indebted to the belcanto tradition and to the operatic gestures of nineteenth-century music that its music becomes a real "song without words".