Sonata for oboe & piano
New York City, 1987 (photo: Nancy Adler)
Sonata for oboe and piano was awarded First Prize in the 1998 Britten-on-the-Bay Composition Competition. It was premiered 7 November 1987 by Alicia Chapman, oboe, and Deborah Jamini, piano, on a concert of my music I produced at Carnegie Recital Hall (Weill) in New York City. I have included below a recording of the second movement from that premiere performance.
The first movement (Lively, with spirit) features syncopated interplay between the instruments that is often percussive in nature. At times, the oboe will break free of that relationship and soar above the piano’s continuing activity. The music later opens up into a more lyrical space for both instruments, providing a sense of rest and relief from the more percussive music. The piano soon brings back the opening material, and the two instruments again engage in their lively dialogue. The restful, lyrical space returns again, before the movement ends with a spirited coda.
With tenderness focuses on the oboe’s natural lyricism, with expansive melodic lines supported by rich harmonies in the piano. The movement slowly builds to a grand and dramatic climax that is, for now, unfulfilled. A brief suggestion of a cadenza for the oboe follows, and then the music gradually returns to that previous climactic moment, now pushing forward with abandon as the oboe sails above dramatic chords in the piano. The movement then quietly closes with the calmer music of the beginning.
But this calmer music is interrupted as the final movement continues attacca. This movement brings back the percussive nature of the piano and a kind of fanfare figure that introduces a more robust oboe. This music leads to a section of three-part imitation which is then followed by a series of fantasia-like episodes. The return of the imitation that follows gradually leads to a broad climax that, at its peak, brings back the opening fanfare music.
This Sonata was recorded in Louisville by Jennifer Potochnic (oboe) and Jessica Litwiniec Dorman (piano) and released in 2026 by Ulysses Arts on “Chamber Music” (UA260030) – link below.
- Instrumentation:
- oboe, piano
- Date completed:
- 1987
- Duration:
- ca. 14:00
- Audio:
II. With tenderness (attacca) III. Aggressively
Featured Recording
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