Phaeton, "who rode upon the chariot of the sun for one day and was hurled into the river Padus by a thunderbolt." Britten composed this work for solo oboe in 1951, completing it in time for its premiere during the Aldeburgh Festival of that year. As had become traditional in the early Festivals, there was a concert on Thorpeness Meare, with soloists and audiences alike in rowing boats, and the Six Metamorphoses were first heard on the water: the intrepid soloist was Janet Boughton. As Sarah Bardwell describes in this week’s film, this concert was recently recreated with Nicholas Daniel as the boat-bound soloist. Three excellent performances of this work - two contemporary and one historical, the first broadcast performance - are showcased here. I am not going to express a preference for any particular version - suffice it to say that all three are essential for an in-depth appreciation of this great work. it is a major reference document that needs to be regarded as an important contribution to Britten studies." The French oboist Maurice Bourgue has died at the age of 83. ‘His tone is delicate and sweet, with the subtlest of gradations’ is how Gramophone’s Lionel Salter described Bourgue’s recording of the Poulenc Oboe Sonata (Decca), a work he frequently performed and recorded.

Each of the six sections is based on a character from Roman mythology who is briefly described: [1] I shall also consider the significance of the instrumentation of this piece. The choice of unaccompanied oboe to illustrate Ovid's texts may reflect a view that the work concerns the individual, or the responsibility of individual moral choice. Yet the use of the oboe also draws attention to its classical associations, particularly with Bacchus, and thus is an aesthetic and symbolic contrast to Apollo's lyre.Bacchus, "at whose feasts is heard the noise of gaggling women's tattling tongues and shouting out of boys." Six Metamorphoses after Ovid (Op. 49) is a piece of program music for solo oboe written by English composer Benjamin Britten in 1951. Over his career, Bourgue was no stranger to the recording studio. With over 28 albums to his name, he championed oboe works from the early Baroque including works by Albinoni, Bach and Vivaldi to the 20 th century: Poulenc 's Oboe Sonata, Britten 's Metamorphoses and Dutilleux 's Oboe Sonata among others. Storms, Laughter and Madness: Verdian ‘Numbers’ and Generic Allusions in Benjamin Britten's Peter Grimes

The piece was inspired by Ovid's Metamorphoses. It is dedicated to oboist Joy Boughton, daughter of Benjamin Britten's friend and fellow composer Rutland Boughton, who gave the first performance at the Aldeburgh Festival on 14 June 1951. [1] Structure [ edit ] The level of enthusiasm didn’t abate after Cumberbatch was gone, with the Françaix and Mozart pieces beautifully played and warmly received. But the best was left for the encore, for which Cumberbatch returned to the stage and read Eichendorff’s poem Mondnacht, before the quartet gave a gorgeous rendition of an arrangement of Schumann’s famous setting. Bourgue's passion for oboe performance extended to his teaching, he was appointed P rofessor of O boe at the Paris Conservatory, a position he held for 13 years, and subsequently a similar position at the Geneva Conservatory he held until 2011.BBC broadcasts as a soloist, and in 1937 gave the first performance (with the Boyd Neel Strings) of the concerto her father had Britten composed this work for solo oboe for the oboist Joy Boughton who premiered the piece at the Aldeburgh festival in 1951. The 6 movements are programmatic in both their suggestive titles and musical devices. For example, the first movement, “Pan: who played upon the reed pipe which was Syrinx, his beloved,” uses a free rhythm to evoke the mythological character. In the second movement, “Phaethon, who rode upon the chariot of the sun for one day and was hurled into the river Padus by a thunderbolt” Britten composed a fast, moving rhythm to represent the flying chariot. Britten used the expressive marking piagendo or “weeping” for the third movement “Niobe who, lamenting the death of her fourteen children, was turned into a mountain.” The remaining movements are: (4) “Bacchus, at whose feasts is heard the noise of gaggling women's tattling tongues and shouting out of boys,” (5) ”Narcissus, who fell in love with his own image and became a flower” and (6) “Arethusa, who, flying from the love of Alpheus the river god, was turned into a fountain.” Leicester International Festival, and teaches in the UK and in Germany, where is he Professor of Oboe at the Musikhochschule,