Fantasia! Dialogue for One

It has a slightly hallucinatory effect, a superior recording of a virtuoso oboist who tells fascinating stories in the perfect acoustics of the Westvestkerk in Schiedam, which is so popular as a recording location…. What she does on the oboe is extremely fascinating. Take the Fantasia in e TWV 40:9. Beautiful, lonely music full of daring jumps, played flawlessly, rhythmically free and full of nuance.

Singingly, the oboist Oostenrijk allows the melody lines in the traverso pieces breathe infinity: the music seems to go on, even when the human ear has long ceased to hear anything. Against this floating character the piano stands like a tree: playful, thoughtful, sad, but always with its roots in the ground.

In these performances of some of Telemann's magnificent Fantasies, oboist and pianist Pauline Oostenrijk is a delightful guide. These are performances to savor, made even more enjoyable with the excellent sound quality provided by recording engineer Tom Peeters in DSD256.

Each time I listen to a recording by Pauline Osstenrijk, I feel privileged by an invitation to a very personal, very intimate, engagement with her music. Her performances are just that way. In this her fourth release from Cobra Records, Oostenrijk has continued to gain confidence to perform for us on piano, complementing her superb musicianship as an oboist. For twenty-five years was the principal oboist for the Residentie Orchestra of The Hague. Today she teaches at the Conservatory of Amsterdam and pursues an active chamber music schedule of performances. Composers such as Louis Andriessen (To Pauline O) and Arne Werkman have written compositions for her. The point of mentioning all of this is to illustrate that she is an artist of some stature and well worth investing some of your time to hear.

And Fantasia! is a nice place to begin your acquaintance if you've not found her already. Telemann's Fantasies are demanding works. They are not mindless table music. Indeed, they require consummate musicianship with quite frequent virtuosity. When a perform can provide this, they are sublime. And Oostenjijk delivers in spades.

Telemann composed his Fantasies for transverse flute. Pauline Oostenrijk plays them on a modern oboe. His Fantasies for harpsichord are played on a modern Steinway grand piano. Does any of this matter? Not for me. Not if one's interest is in the music and provided one is willing to experience the very different sonorities these modern instruments provide.

The sound quality on this recording is once again magnificent. Tom Peeters, founder of Cobra Records, is an excellent recording engineer whose new releases I am always eager to hear. In this recording, Tom achieves his signature balance of placing instruments in a realistic sounding, natural acoustic space. There is fine resolution of detail with a spaciousness to the sound that is addictive, for both solo piano and solo oboe. I listened to both the binaural and stereo versions of this recording. Each superb in their distinctive ways.

Recommended.