KETIL HVOSLEF (b.1939): Oboe Concerto, HARALD SÆVERUD (1897-1992): Oboe Concerto, Op. 12, Rondo Amoroso for Oboe, Bassoon and Strings, Op. 14/7, WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART (1756-1791): Oboe Quartet in F, K 370/368b.

Description: Hvoslef's lively twenty-minute concerto in one continuous span is an appealing combination of the persistent, chugging rhythms and repeating cells - not used at all minimalistically - and the pastoral plangent melodiousness at which the solo instrument excels. The language is very tonal and the piece has a ready approachability, with episodes of sunlit well-being increasingly assailed by the passage of autumnal shadows over the landscape, and an escalating sense of dramatic tension in the work's final section. His father's early concerto, written almost exactly three-quarters of a century earlier, is in three movements which have a free, rhapsodic internal structure. A rather Hindemithian, neoclassically precise and economical first movement is followed by a melodically lovely slow movement and a boisterously good-humored finale. The composer's arrangement of his Grieg-like little rondo is a pleasing encore. David Friedemann Strunck (oboe), Per Hannisdal (bassoon), Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra; Arvid Engegård.