The oboe and piano
duo covers ground here in this century-plus
survey of aspects of the repertoire.
The earliest is the one programmed last,
the Koechlin, an evocative and beautiful
Chant, which brings out wider tone colours
in Fabian Menzel’s playing than have
been encouraged before – and greater
verticality in matters of dynamics as
well. I’d never heard Au Loin
before and it’s a real beauty. So for
that matter, though less overtly, is
Frank Martin’s 1941 Petite Compleinte,
which plays to the instrument’s
strengths of plangent limpidity, as
well as its more Puckish and evanescent
appeals – both are winningly presented
here. The American Matthew Greenbaum’s
Nod Quiet Ox – anagram lovers might
recognise the name of Don Quixote in
there – is a six-movement suite that
mines some clever rhythmic displacements,
elliptical repeated note passages, a
sense of wistfulness and dancing vigour.
The fourth movement embodies a tribute
to Stefan Wolpe but the last movement
embraces the most moods – pastoral and
fractious in equal measure.
Beyer’s Nachtstück
is convincingly argued – crepuscular
as well as skittish – whilst Carter’s
early Pastoral includes some richly
juicily romantic piano harmonies and
a Francophile and Copland feel to some
of the writing, as well as slippery
neo-classical ones. Aleksander Veprik,
born in Balta, spent his youth in Warsaw
but moved to Germany. He was taken up
by Toscanini, Scherchen and Dobrowen
and was deeply involved in
the propagation of Jewish music. Kaddisch,
written in 1925, is appositely grave
though not overly distinctive. Mari
Amor peruses her own interests in her
two little pieces – predominately folk
inflected and lyrical – whilst Lutosławski’s
piece in memoriam Alan
Richardson is concise, tense yet measured.
The playing by the
Menzel-Endres duo is as sympathetic
as the recorded sound and the notes,
in German and English, are helpful.
Rather a miscellaneous programme, in
truth, and most of the pieces are very
short. But you’ll certainly find a nugget
or two if you look hard enough.
Jonathan Woolf
Fabian Menzel (oboe) 
