When There Are No Words: Revolutionary Works for Oboe & Piano Alex Klein & Phillip Bush

• Paul Hindemith (1895 - 1963): Oboe Sonata:
• 1 Hindemith: Oboe Sonata: I. Munter 03:48
• 2 Hindemith: Oboe Sonata: II. Sehr langsam 07:54
• Pavel Haas (1899 - 1944): Suite for Oboe & Piano, Op. 17:
• 3 Haas: Suite for Oboe & Piano, Op. 17: I. Furioso 03:53
• 4 Haas: Suite for Oboe & Piano, Op. 17: II. Con fuoco 05:14
• 5 Haas: Suite for Oboe & Piano, Op. 17: III. Moderato 05:57
• William Bolcom (b. 1938): Aubade (For the Continuation of Life):
• 6 Bolcom: Aubade (For the Continuation of Life) 05:59
• Benjamin Britten (1913 - 1976): Temporal Variations:
• 7 Britten: Temporal Variations: I. Theme 01:31
• 8 Britten: Temporal Variations: II. Oration 01:45
• 9 Britten: Temporal Variations: III. March 01:04
• 10 Britten: Temporal Variations: IV. Exercises 00:55
• 11 Britten: Temporal Variations: V. Commination 01:04
• 12 Britten: Temporal Variations: VI. Chorale 01:50
• 13 Britten: Temporal Variations: VII. Waltz 01:27
• 14 Britten: Temporal Variations: VIII. Polka 01:21
• 15 Britten: Temporal Variations: IX. Resolution 01:20
• José Siqueira (1907 - 1985): 3 Etudes for Oboe & Piano:
• 16 Siqueira: 3 Etudes for Oboe & Piano: No. 1, Calmo 04:27
• 17 Siqueira: 3 Etudes for Oboe & Piano: No. 2, Allegro scherzoso 02:51
• 18 Siqueira: 3 Etudes for Oboe & Piano: No. 3, Allegro 02:41
• Klement Slavický (1910 - 1999): Suite for Oboe & Piano:
• 19 Slavický: Suite for Oboe & Piano: I. Pastorale 04:36
• 20 Slavický: Suite for Oboe & Piano: II. Scherzo 03:23
• 21 Slavický: Suite for Oboe & Piano: III. Triste 06:43
• 22 Slavický: Suite for Oboe & Piano: IV. Bacchanale rustico 04:55
• Total Runtime 01:14:38

Info for When There Are No Words: Revolutionary Works for Oboe & Piano

Grammy Award-winner Alex Klein, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s principal oboe emeritus, and pianist Phillip Bush perform works by composers from both sides of the Atlantic who were caught up in or deeply moved by 20th-century political turmoil.

The Brazilian-born oboe virtuoso’s passionate project, with its underlying appeal for tolerance, encompasses works by Czech, German, British, American, and Brazilian composers. Much of the music evinces a calm lyricism and melodious beauty that belie the composers’ difficult circumstances. Some were exiled from their native countries, others despaired of impending war. One, Pavel Haas, died in Auschwitz.

Paul Hindemith’s 1938 Sonata for Oboe and Piano, written in Swiss exile, is said to represent happier days in his native Germany. Pavel Haas’s Suite for Oboe and Piano, composed at the outset of Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia, shares the complex musical language of his teacher, Leoš Janáček. William Bolcom’s ultimately hopeful Aubade – for the Continuation of Life, written amid early 1980s fears of nuclear war, forges a fragile coexistence between cello and piano. Benjamin Britten’s Temporal Variations, written on the eve of World War II, expresses the composer’s anti-militarism. José Siqueira wrote his tuneful Three Etudes for Oboe with Piano Accompaniment shortly before fleeing Brazil’s military dictatorship. Klement Slavický’s professional musical career had been derailed by the Czech Communist regime by the time he wrote his virtuosic Suite for Oboe and Piano.

Alex Klein, oboe
Phillip Bush, piano

Alex Klein
Recognized as one of today's leading oboists, Alex Klein began his musical studies in his native Brazil at age 9, continuing to the Oberlin Conservatory of Music and the Curtis Institute of Music. Klein holds a Grammy Award for his recording of the Concerto for Oboe by Richard Strauss with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra conducted by Daniel Barenboim. Klein was Principal Oboe in Chicago for 9 years under Barenboim, and in 2017 was awarded the Oboe Emeritus Soloist title by current music director, Riccardo Muti. Klein won prizes at the international competitions in Geneva, Tokyo, New York and Prague, and is regularly invited to adjudicate international competitions at these institutions as well as in England, China and Russia. Klein left his position at the Chicago Symphony due to complications related to Musician’s Focal Dystonia, a neurological condition that inhibits two fingers of his left hand. During his convalescence, Klein dedicated his musical career to the advancement of young talents from Latin America and neglected communities, founding FEMUSC in 2006, the São Paulo International Chamber Music Festival in 2009, and PRIMA - Program of Social Inclusion through Music and the Arts in 2012. Klein also performed as an orchestral conductor in front of major Brazilian orchestras and in the United States, Europe and was the first Brazilian to lead one of China's top orchestras. After re-learning the oboe and sufficiently overcoming the limitations of focal dystonia, Klein successfully re-auditioned for his former position and returned to the Chicago Symphony in what Chicago Magazine called "one of the greatest comebacks of classical music." Alex Klein today is Principal Oboe with the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra in Canada, as well as an oboe professor at DePaul University in Chicago, also teaching/performing at the Aspen, Buzzards Bay and Sunflower festivals, and is regularly invited to teach master classes and recitals at North American universities. Klein recorded dozens of albums with the Chicago Symphony and as a soloist and chamber musician, with critical acclaim. His latest CD, released this year by Cedille Records, with 20th Century Sonatas for oboe and piano, was nominated for a Grammy Award for “Producer of the Year”, and was thus lauded by critic David Canfield for Fanfare Magazine: "In my opinion, oboe playing simply does not get any better than this”.

Phillip Bush
was born to an American father and German mother. He grew up in Charlotte, North Carolina, where his father taught French at the University of North Carolina-Charlotte. Bush studied at the Peabody Conservatory with Leon Fleisher, and has said that he still considers Fleisher his major musical influence. Bush spent two years at Banff Centre School of Fine Arts in Canada from 1981-83; there he met Steve Reich and several other musicians who were formative influences for the direction of his career. He subsequently moved to New York City, and for most of his career was based there. In recent years he has made his home elsewhere in the U.S., teaching for several years at the University of Michigan and then moving to Columbia, South Carolina, where he lives today.

He was winner of the 1983 American Pianists' Association national competition and made his New York recital debut in 1984 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. As a soloist, Bush has championed the work of many living composers, and has recorded piano works of Ben Johnston and John Zorn, among others. Bush is a regular at various chamber music festivals throughout the United States, and has collaborated with many major American instrumentalists. His work as a "sideman" in chamber and contemporary recording sessions currently stands at some thirty recordings on various labels including Virgin Classics, Sony, Koch International, Denon, and New World Records, with groups such as The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. In 2007 he was named Music Director of the Chamber Music Conference and Composers Forum of the East, an annual month-long summer music program in Bennington, Vermont.

In the contemporary music field, Bush has been a keyboardist with Philip Glass' ensemble since 1987, and also with Steve Reich and Musicians since 1986. Bush has also been the official pianist for Milwaukee's Present music contemporary group since the mid-1990's. Other long group associations included a stint from 1992 to 1999 with the classical crossover piano quartet "Typhoon," led by violinist Iwao Furusawa and immensely popular in Japan through the 90s with several top-selling CDs. In 2001 Bush made his Carnegie Hall solo concerto debut on short notice, replacing an ailing Peter Serkin as soloist with the London Sinfonietta in concerti by Stravinsky and Alexander Goehr to critical acclaim. Bush's efforts on behalf of contemporary American music have earned him awards and grants from the Aaron Copland Fund and the National Endowment for the Arts.

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