Oboe Classics

17/09/2025

Gordon Hunt has performed Carillons with orchestra, so it is good to have his approval for this new version:
"Sarah Roper’s recording shows the complexity and innovation of Carillons in a wonderful way, with beautiful, nuanced sound and dynamics, complex phrasing, and immaculate technique. With the help of this recording... [it] will hopefully become part of the standard oboe repertoire.”

Grace Mary Williams (1906 - 1977) Carillons for Oboe and Orchestra (1965, Rev. 1973) - Piano ReductionSarah Roper, oboe / Ignacio Torner, piano00:00 I Modera...

14/09/2025

Sarah Roper's new video is out! Oboe Classics only makes money from the streamed version, but is happy to recommend this for the extra drama of watching this fascinating piece being performed.

Grace Mary Williams (1906 - 1977) Carillons for Oboe and Orchestra (1965, Rev. 1973) - Piano ReductionSarah Roper, oboe / Ignacio Torner, piano0:00 I Moderat...

15/08/2025

If you think Bach shouldn't be jazzed up, do not watch this video! (The 14th in the Oboe Classics Catalogue).

A sample track from The Sheba Sound (two oboes, bassoon and harpsichord) album Crossing Musical Boundaries

01/08/2025

Ralph Vaughan Williams encouraged many female composers at the Royal College in London in the 1930s - Elizabeth Maconchy, Imogen Holst, Elisabeth Lutyens, Dorothy Gow - and Welsh composer Grace Williams.

He never imposed a style on his pupils, and all these people wrote highly original compositions. Carillons is one such, and is coming soon as a video and for streaming, superbly played by Sarah Roper.

15/07/2025

Reviewing the Oboe Classics catalogue brings us to composer Althea Talbot-Howard when she was Althea Ifeka, playing a haunting Sarabande by Gordon Jacob.

A track from his Sonatina for oboe and harpsichord (1963) on the Oboe Classics label

10/06/2025

Reviewing the Oboe Classics catalogue has come to a track from the Father of the American style of oboe playing, Marcel Tabuteau.

Marcel Tabuteau (1887-1966) is generally considered to be the Father of the American style of oboe playing. Here, he plays the famous Brahms oboe solo in a r...

09/06/2025

The critic Malcolm Boyd has written: "Carillons was Grace Williams' response to a request from the BBC in 1965 for a 'light-weight, entertaining work'. It also proved to be a work of considerable subtlety and sophistication." Coming soon!

26/05/2025

Elaine Douvas writes about Harold Gomberg playing Telemann: "The first striking thing is the honest simplicity of Gomberg’s musicality. There are no ornaments, no adornments, just his vibrant, luminous, many-layered tone, shimmering with inner life. What is
unique is the combination of depth, like peering down a mysterious well, and the tonal brilliance. The subtle shadings of mood and dynamic are elegant and forthright, going straight to the heart."
Have you checked this out yet? Type 'Gomberg 1916' into your streaming service, and it's track 1.

15/05/2025

"This most atmospheric of releases... incredibly well chosen, varied and balanced programme... exceptionally performed by all involved." Just the kind of review we like! www.oboeclassics.com/Blake_review.pdf

06/05/2025

How did a Serbian oboist and a pianist from Albania come to make an oboe album by eight different Balkan composers?

Teodora Pejasinovic Proud (oboe) and Eneida Larti (piano) met in America. Their story is in the latest edition of The Double Reed, the magazine of the International Double Reed Society.

Read it at www.oboeclassics.com/digital/Balkan_Soundscapes_IDRS.jpg, and the album details are at oboeclassics.com/digital.

29/04/2025

Does your crow matter? In her article on Harold Gomberg, Elaine Douvas says that he pronounced her (and Joseph Robinson's) crow of C as 'too tight'. His crow was a B flat, which Elaine thought was perhaps the secret to 'his extreme color variety, soft texture, flexibility, and power'. Was it?

details of all the tracks you can find under the Oboe Classics label.

25/04/2025

Elaine Douvas, Principal Oboe with the Metropolitan Opera for 47 years, evaluates a new transcription of Harold Gomberg playing Telemann, Mozart and Britten.

"Rediscovering the beauty of Gomberg’s playing as a mature oboist has been an ear-opening experience."

Details at www.oboeclassics.com/digital