Oboe Concertos

Lebrun is a good example: at the age of 12 he was introduced by his father, Jacob Alexander Lebrun, the Belgian solo oboist of the Mannheim Orchestra (the Berlin Philharmonic of the 18th century) as a ‘student oboist’. In a few years he became the ‘Michael Jackson’ of the oboe in Europe: young, virtuosic, and innovative. He stole the hearts of his audiences in all the great musical capitals of Europe. The oboist Anton Fladt, his critic and colleague, described him in this way: “one of the greatest musical geniuses that I have ever encountered is Lebrun: young in years but a full grown man in his art. He has achieved the summit of perfection with his oboe. His ornamentation, his compositional innovations, and his cadenzas are inimitable. He conquers his instrument’s every difficulty, plays simple or difficult works, evokes emotional turmoil and warmth of feeling, plays his own compositions but also those of other composers, and, in a word, is an exceptionally rare spirit!”

Lebrun apparently had a tone that could ‘open your ears’, he had a technical facility which enabled him to execute feats hitherto considered impossible, and above all: he himself wrote the concerti which gave him an outlet for all of those talents. Free of the pretense which would have held him back from writing music that was designed to impress posterity, he was also free to experiment with the current styles of composition.