Twentieth Century Oboe Sonatas Alex Klein & Phillip Bush

• York Bowen (1884 - 1961): Oboe Sonata, Op. 85:
• 1 Oboe Sonata, Op. 85: I. Allegretto grazioso 07:02
• 2 Oboe Sonata, Op. 85: II. Andantino espressivo 05:07
• 3 Oboe Sonata, Op. 85: III. Finale. Allegro giocoso 04:16
• Petr Eben (1929 - 2007): Oboe Sonata, Op. 1:
• 4 Oboe Sonata, Op. 1: I. Militare. Allegro risoluto 03:38
• 5 Oboe Sonata, Op. 1: II. Pastorale. Andante cantabile 05:01
• 6 Oboe Sonata, Op. 1: III. Ballabile. Presto 05:06
• Henri Dutilleux (1916 - 2013): Oboe Sonata:
• 7 Oboe Sonata: I. Aria. Grave 03:03
• 8 Oboe Sonata: II. Scherzo. Vif 03:49
• 9 Oboe Sonata: III. Final. Assez allant 03:47
• Eugène Bozza (1905 - 1991): Oboe Sonata:
• 10 Oboe Sonata: I. Très calme 05:29
• 11 Oboe Sonata: II. Vif 02:17
• 12 Oboe Sonata: III. Extrêmement tendre, expressif 02:59
• 13 Oboe Sonata: IV. Animé 02:01
• Francis Poulenc (1899 - 1963): Oboe Sonata, FP 185:
• 14 Oboe Sonata, FP 185: I. Elégie 05:28
• 15 Oboe Sonata, FP 185: II. Scherzo 04:10
• 16 Oboe Sonata, FP 185: III. Déploration 04:29
• Camille Saint-Saëns (1835 - 1921): Oboe Sonata, Op. 166:
• 17 Oboe Sonata, Op. 166: I. Andantino 03:42
• 18 Oboe Sonata, Op. 166: II. Ad libitum - Allegretto - Ad libitum 04:40
• 19 Oboe Sonata, Op. 166: III. Molto allegro 02:10
• Total Runtime 01:18:14

Info for Twentieth Century Oboe Sonatas

Grammy Award-winner Alex Klein, former principal oboist of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, performs sonatas that signify the oboe’s 20th-century reemergence as a brilliant solo instrument. One of the world’s most famous oboe players, Klein says he waited to acquire a professional lifetime’s worth of experience before putting his stamp on the six sonatas heard here.

With pianist Phillip Bush, Klein plays works that he says “define the modern oboe”: Camille Saint-Saëns’ jovial, late-Romantic Sonata for Oboe and Piano, Op. 166; York Bowen’s lushly beautiful Sonata for Oboe and Pianoforte, Op. 85; Henri Dutilleux’s emotionally wide-ranging Sonata for Oboe and Piano; Petr Eben’s youthful, inventive Oboe Sonata, Op.1; Francis Poulenc’s late, philosophical Sonata for Oboe and Piano, FP 185; and Eugène Bozza’s Sonata for Oboe and Piano, an ethereal, rarely heard tour de force.

Klein possesses a “tone so unique and beautiful that musicians from around the globe would flock to [Chicago’s] Symphony Center to hear him play” (Chicago Magazine). He won a Grammy Award in 2002 for Best Instrumental Solo Performance (with Orchestra) for his recording of Richard Strauss’s oboe concerto with conductor Daniel Barenboim and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (Teldec).His Cedille Records discography includes Baroque, Classical, Romantic, 20th Century, and contemporary oboe works. Gramophone’s review of Klein’s Vivaldi Oboe Concertos album proclaimed, “it’s possible to listen to this recording repeatedly and rarely take your ears away from Klein, who dispenses melodies with musical charm and technical requirements with effortless grace.”

Notes by Alex Klein: This is an album I've wanted to do all life: to go on the record (so to speak) with the pieces that are the meat and potatoes of oboe playing, plus a few more that are personally important to me. It is a pleasure and an honor to make such a musical statement. They are all part of my personal history of oboe playing, a history where I now have more years behind than in front. I find myself in the Eben, which is part of my youth. And like Poulenc when he wrote his Sonata, I too am facing mortality. The Saint-Saëns and the Poulenc are really the core of the oboe recital repertoire, but I'm also really in love with the other pieces here. The Bozza is wild and free and engaging. It runs from an incredible depth of musicality to torrid technical display. The Dutilleux is some of the most driven and energetic music that's been written for the instrument. And the Bowen is such a delight; all three movements are right up there with best music an oboe player can play.

I have a certain nostalgia besides the one caused by age: focal dystonia brought a significant burden to my life and led me to rebuild my playing. Still, I don't know how long I have left to play oboe. This recording has more to do with closing than anticipating ambitious projects for the future. This may well be one of my last oboe statements.

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.

This album contains no booklet.