Bennett: Concerto for Oboe and Stringorchestra, for oboe and piano

Richard Rodney
Bennett has so far completed three concertos for solo instrument and
orchestra, although a fourth – for viola – is planned for the near future.
Meanwhile, the size of the forces employed in the Concerto for oboe and strings (1969-70) places it midway between the concerto for piano and large orchestra
(1968) and that for guitar and chamber
orchestra (1970).

The oboe concerto is a genuinely virtuoso piece, directly
inspired by the astonishing technical abilities of Heinz Holliger.
Nevertheless, its wide-ranging instrumental lines are essentially melodic in
character, so that the ‘brilliance’ of the writing is an integral part of its
florid espressivo – successfully
avoiding any temptation to develop a ‘surface’ virtuosity as an end in itself.

The first movement has three main elements: the stabbing,
sforzando repetitions which outline the opening chords, and the ‘rocking’
accompaniment to the first, declamatory oboe entry which – after a hazy
reminder of the opening –eventually fades into a more meditatively expansive
theme on the oboe. These three ideas are developed both separately and
together, in opposition to the solo part and in collaboration with it, until
the orchestral climax reaches a cadence of fortissimo
repeated chords, with the violins sustaining a high G – which then launches the
oboe cadenza.

This solo ‘bridge’ between the two movements ends on the
same high G with which it began – merging imperceptibly into a pianissimo chord (built almost entirely
of string harmonics) which echoes the fortissimo
repetitions at the end of the first movement. Muted cellos introduce a
low-lying, fluttering figure which is repeated, in canon, as it rises towards
the very top of the string compass. The oboe entry proposes a cantabile augmentation of this theme,
against a string accompaniment of increasing density (beginning with one solo
violin) – and then develops it in conjunction with the more nervously ornate
version, in a ‘two-part’ canonic cadenza. This twofold thematic development is
taken up by the strings, before the cantabile
oboe theme reappears against a background of lightly repeating chords. A more
urgent version of the ‘development’ is now a fourfold canon between oboe and
the lower strings, leading to a fortissimo
restatement of the opening bars – which fades to reveal a final glimpse of
the first movement.

The Oboe Concerto
was commissioned by the English Chamber Orchestra, and is dedicated to Heinz
Holliger.

The Royal Philharmonic Society, Programme,  4 April 1973