Mozart, Mendelssohn, Bartók, Connesson

Wolfgang A. Mozart / Oboe Quartet in F major, K. 370 (1781)
Felix Mendelssohn / Piano Sextet in D major, Op. 110 (1824)
Béla Bartók / Contrasts for Clarinet, Violin, and Piano, Sz. 111 (1938)
Guillaume Connesson / Sextet for Oboe, Clarinet, Violin, Viola, Double Bass, and Piano (1998)
Orion Rapp, oboe; Romie de Guise-Langlois, clarinet; Jennifer Frautschi, violin; Alyssa Wang, violin; Marcus Thompson, viola; Raman Ramakrishnan, cello; Thomas Van Dyke, double bass; Max Levinson, piano
Mozart makes many technical and lyrical demands of the oboist in the Oboe Quartet in F Major. From the extended cantabile lines in the Adagio to upper-register passages in the Rondo Allegro, the oboe is featured as first among equals in virtuosic passages and in conversation with the strings.
The warm sonorities of Mendelssohn’s Piano Sextet in D Major come from the unusual scoring for two violas. Penned by the fifteen-year-old prodigy, the sextet casts the piano in the virtuosic leading role while the strings provide support and ornamentation.
Commissioned by Benny Goodman and Joseph Szigeti, Bartók’s Contrasts is strongly nationalistic—perhaps his response to the advance of Nazism at that time—and explores the differences in sound production among the clarinet, violin, and piano as much as possible.
Minimalist Guillaume Connesson’s Sextet offers a varied timbral palette with which the composer creates ever-shifting textures through layered ostinati. Rhythmically driving outer movements contrast with the unhurried Nocturne, where the oboe and clarinet deliver expansive, lyrical lines against a muted backdrop.