Hyperion Records

The concerto in D minor for oboe appears in a manuscript now in the Dresden Sachslandesbibliothek, with a set of parts also to be found in the Darmstadt Hochschulbibliothek. Of significance are the different types of articulation that Telemann specifies, with the same phrase often treated to several types of phrasing within a short space of time. His inventive treatment of texture shows itself in the first movement, where the oboe’s plaintive melody is accompanied by a mixture of duplets, triplets and quadruplets. The six bars of the short third movement contain, alongside some very beautiful writing, one harmonic shift which must qualify as one of the most remarkable of the period. The final movement is notable too for testing the soloist’s virtuosity in passages requiring nimble playing.

from notes by Robert King © 1988