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www.crystalrecords.com
Crystal usually manages
to produce thoughtful discs. Here the
Romantic pillars that support the programme
are the Romanzen of Robert and Clara
Schumann and the central part is given
over to much less tilled soil, though
Jolivet’s conservatoire test piece may
well be known – and feared – by aspiring
oboists. This is a four movement work
written for the Paris Conservatoire
in 1945 and exists in two versions;
this one, for oboe and piano, and also
for wind quintet with oboe soloist.
The liquid opening Cantiléne
gives way to the registral leaps and
arabesques of the Caprice – and what
sounds like exceptionally tricky matters
of co-ordination with the pianist. The
Intermède is a beautifully complex
and expressive one that evinces the
composer’s characteristic powers of
emotive compression. The duo has to
be on their toes in the Marche finale
– prickly demands, rhythmic games, technical
complications. Gullickson and Enns lead
confidently to the conclusion.
It’s good to see that
Madeleine Dring’s name is appearing
more and more on disc and in recital
– both chamber and vocal works in particular.
What else could you expect from a work
called Three Piece Suite than
mercurial wit and charm? She oscillates
convincingly between neo-classicism
and pastoralism in the Showpiece
opening movement whilst the Romance
is Francophile and very beautiful
in its lyricism and there’s a perky
finale with moments of lyric reprieve.
Written for her husband Roger Lord it’s,
as one would expect of a composer writing
for a performer of that stature, flawlessly
laid out for the duo. Andrea Clearfield’s
Unremembered Wings was commissioned
by Gullickson in 2001 and was inspired
by Pablo Neruda’s poem La Poesia.
It ranges across the expressive
bar lines and has a density that intrigues
as well as rhythmic variety. The end
sounds to me catastrophic – or at least
decisively overwhelming – but that only
adds to the depth of it. The Schumanns
are attractively played and warmly recorded;
Clara’s Op.22 (originally for violin
and intended for Joachim) are relatively
early; the second fares particularly
well here.
Gullickson writes her
own well-informed and sympathetic notes;
Crystal’s sound is well focused and
warm.
Jonathan Woolf
Andrea Gullickson (oboe) 
