Swan Lake Ballet Suite

Peter Tschaikowsky (1840-1893)

The oboe sample performed is from Act 1 of Tschaikowsky’s 1875 Swan Lake Ballet Suite.

Against the sound of harps and strings, the oboe solo plays the music of the swan theme in Act 1. The three act ballet is a story a prince who seeks and wins the queen of swans who is magically transformed into a beautiful maiden after daylight. She explains to the prince that she has been bewitched by an evil sorcerer’s spell that turns her into a swan during daylight hours unless a man swears his eternal fidelity and love for her. Throughout the ballet, the challenges the prince and swan queen must overcome in their journey to vanquish the spell are intriguing and in the end the spell is broken.

Octet in F Major

Franz Schubert (1797-1828)

The oboe and chamber ensemble sample performed is from the Allegro movement of Schubert’s 1813 octet.

In August 1813 Schubert occupied himself by working on the Octet in F major for wind instruments; however, it was abandoned before its completion. This was attributed to taking on work composing other symphonic material about the same and completion of the Octet was a matter of secondary importance.

Only two movements of the 1813 Octet in F were ever finished: the minuet and the finale. A first movement Allegro (cataloged as D. 72a) is just a fragment, and there is no trace of a slow movement. It is scored for two oboes, two clarinets, two horns, and two bassoons.

Concerto in A Major

Johann Bach (1685-1750)

The Oboe d’amore sample performed is from the third movement of this selection.

Because of Bach’s busy performing schedule in Leipzig in the 1730’s, he was often rushed and on occasion transcribed some of his violin, oboe, and oboe d’amore concerti into harpsichord concerti. The Concerto in A for harpsichord is based on the original composition started as a concerto for oboe d’amore. Though the manuscript of the harpsichord concerti arrangements survived, the original sources for this did not. Much research took place in later years to reconstruct it to the Concerto in A major for Oboe d’amore, Strings and Baso continuo version.

William Tell Overture

Gioacchino Rossini (1792-1868)

The English horn sample performed is from the solo from second movement of this selection.

This is the last opera Rossini composed at age 36, although he lived to be seventy-six. Up until that time he had written thirty-seven operas, during his remaining years he continued to compose orchestral and some vocal music. This opera premiered in 1829, the composition has been called “a complete symphonic poem in miniature”. The Overture to the William Tell Opera in its first section is reflective of a sunrise and mountains depicted by cellos and basses. The second section of this overture depicts a gathering fury of an Alpine storm, and, as it subsides, an Andante comes through with the shepherds’ thanksgiving – the 41 measure the beautiful English horn solo. Eventually, the trumpet announces the approach of Swiss soldiers with the full orchestra finishing with a bright and rapid pace to the end of the overture.

The William Tell Opera is founded on the well-known story of Tell and his endeavors to relieve his countrymen, the Swiss, from Austrian domination. “Tell” was written for the Grand Opera in Paris, where it was first produced in August 1829.