Review Corner

Tag: oboe

  • Robin Stevens: Prevailing Winds

    This is a mostly enjoyable mixed bag of short works; you probably won’t like them all but it’s a diverting collection of music. In his sleeve notes, Stevens says that composing miniatures such as presented here can be liberating: if it doesn’t work, it’s less time wasted. They also add to a composer’s technical skills,…

  • Truman Harris: A Warm Day in Winter

    This is a jolly album of bassoon-led pieces. Yes: you study all your life, you’re really good and you put out a complex album … and it’s summed up as jolly. All that effort for one word. Jolly hockey sticks is what always comes to mind when we play this, but we’re not really sure…

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    Rob Keeley: Twists and Turns

    Skittish is the word for this CD from Keeley. This is partly because of the pairing of instruments such as clarinet and harpsichord (which create a sound different to what one normally hears) but also because of the music itself, which skitters about like a giddy rabbit in a summer’s field. The sound is somewhere…

  • The Fidelio Trio: Dancing In Daylight

    Mention Dublin, dancing and light of some kind and your average music fan is going to think Thin Lizzy and Dancing in the Moonlight. We don’t think the composer of the piece that gives this CD its name was thinking of Phil Lynott and his chocolate stains but the two bits of music contrast well:…