Lovely playing. one factor distinguishes Craxton is that she plays with less tension and air pressure than most recorded oboists. That gives the performance a delicacy and personal quality that one fails to find elsewhere. Relatively soft reeds are another factor; they require less pressure. Note the gentle and varied articulation at the beginnings and ends of notes. The legato is also super smooth, not bumpy or distorted by bulging. In sum, you hear the performer and the oboe and the music, not the reed. Shades of Goossens and the English school.
Thank you, DC, for your thoughtful and perceptive critique. I've always loved the oboe, and your insightful comments help me enjoy this lovely piece even more.
Some reeding matter: the oboe in the hands of an old obsessive/can in fact be often so very excessive/but by practicing by day and night progressive--and wasting nary a moment digressive--it can quack like a duck: quite unaggressive. Your pun is pardoned, but this verse is a venial sin.
Is this from a CD or a record? I have tried googling but cannot find this recording anywhere. There are very few recordings available of Janet Craxton:-(
Try CD Classics (by Jeremy Polmear), a CD series with quite a lot of Janet's work. Some day I must find the time to transcribe miles of open-reel tape of Janet, Alan and the Quartet, from BBC broadcasts.
@@grahamsalter3007 Yes, I have Oboe Classics bookmarked. It would be wonderful if you could one day get round to digitalising some of those BBC recordings and maybe sharing them here? Its a big job, I know🙂. PS That must be Alan Richardson, Janet Craxton's husband you refer to? I remember I played one of his piano pieces for my Grade 5 in 1975🙂
![Malcolm Arnold: Oboe Quartet [London Oboe Quartet-Craxton]](/img/logo.svg){kind=logo}
