So if you want to hear Russ DeLuna the new English hornist of San Francisco Symphony, emusic.com has a woodwind quintet CD that includes him. He plays mainly oboe on the CD, but it does include Reicha’s Andante Pour La Cor Anglais #1. I just downloaded the CD.
In addition I downloaded Christopher Redgate playing Pasculli. I’m not a huge Pasculli fan, but I’ve not heard Redgate before so there you go. (To me, Pasculli is all about showing off and not about music. Maybe this is just my problem … anyone else?)
(And no, I’m not going to give a BlogReview of these CDs. If you want to know what I think you can ask me privately. I’m not a reviewer. Just an oboe player.)
i’ve got the pasculli CD too! I’ve read somewhere, someone said that Pasculli was the Paganini of the oboe.. That someone’s probably right 🙂 He probably didn’t even breathe during the Le Api! Madness, that is…
Well, after listening to a large part of the CD I definitely don’t care for the composer. Nothing about the works moves me at all. It’s all about technique and showing off … to my ear.
I usually don’t care for circular breathing. For me, music is alive … it breathes. Like us. Not breathing sounds unnatural.
All just my opinion, of course!
I have not heard the CD, so I can’t comment on that. But I do heartily agree with Patty’s comment. No musician — including string players and keyboard players — should want to play “music minus breathing”. To cultivate elaborate techniques to that very end seems to me like a terrible idea!