Gonzalo X. Ruiz is an Argentine baroque oboist. He was born in La Plata, Argentina, and studied at the San Francisco Conservatory before pursuing a performing career in the US and Europe. He has been the principal oboist of the Buenos Aires Philharmonic and the New Century Chamber Orchestra, and since 2009 has been a member of the faculty of the Juilliard School. [1]
He has issued a number of recordings of baroque works. His reconstruction and recording of Bach's Orchestral Suite No. 2 in B Minor, to feature the oboe rather than the flute, was nominated for a Grammy Award in 2009. In issuing the recording, Ruiz argued that the suite was originally composed for the oboe. [2] [3] In 2014 he applied a similar theory to a series of Bach's harpsichord concertos, reconstructing them for the oboe and recording them with Monica Huggett and the Portland Baroque Orchestra in an album reviewed by Gramophone as an "exceptional union of scholarly curiosity and excellent musicianship". [4]
The oboe is a type of double reed woodwind instrument. Oboes are usually made of wood, but may also be made of synthetic materials, such as plastic, resin or hybrid composites. The most common oboe plays in the treble or soprano range. A soprano oboe measures roughly 65 cm long, with metal keys, a conical bore and a flared bell. Sound is produced by blowing into the reed at a sufficient air pressure, causing it to vibrate with the air column. The distinctive tone is versatile and has been described as "bright". When the word oboe is used alone, it is generally taken to mean the treble instrument rather than other instruments of the family, such as the bass oboe, the cor anglais, or oboe d'amore.
Trevor David Pinnock is a British harpsichordist and conductor.
Léon Jean Goossens, CBE, FRCM was a British oboist.
The Academy of Ancient Music (AAM) is a period-instrument orchestra based in Cambridge, England. Founded by harpsichordist Christopher Hogwood in 1973, it was named after a previous organisation of the same name of the 18th century. The musicians play on either original instruments or modern copies of instruments from the period of time the music was composed. They generally play Baroque and Classical music, though they have also played some new compositions for baroque orchestra in recent years.
The Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra is a Canadian Baroque orchestra specializing in early music and based in Toronto. They often perform with choir and play period instruments.
John Sherwood de Lancie was an American oboist and arts administrator. He was principal oboist of the Philadelphia Orchestra for 23 years and also director of the Curtis Institute of Music.
The English Concert is a baroque orchestra playing on period instruments based in London. Founded in 1972 and directed from the harpsichord by Trevor Pinnock for 30 years, it is now directed by harpsichordist Harry Bicket. Nadja Zwiener has been orchestra leader (concertmaster) since September 2007.
Masaaki Suzuki is a Japanese organist, harpsichordist and conductor, and the founder and musical director of the Bach Collegium Japan. With this ensemble he is recording the complete choral works of Johann Sebastian Bach for the Swedish label BIS Records, for which he is also recording Bach's concertos, orchestral suites, and solo works for harpsichord and organ. He is also Artist-in residence at Yale University and director of its Schola Cantorum, and has conducted orchestras and choruses around the world.
The Concerto in D major for Oboe and Small Orchestra, AV 144, TrV 292, was written by Richard Strauss in 1945. It was one of the last works he composed near the end of his life, during what is often described by biographers, journalists and music critics as his "Indian summer."
The four orchestral suites, BWV 1066–1069 are four suites by Johann Sebastian Bach. The name ouverture refers only in part to the opening movement in the style of the French overture, in which a majestic opening section in relatively slow dotted-note rhythm in duple meter is followed by a fast fugal section, then rounded off with a short recapitulation of the opening music. More broadly, the term was used in Baroque Germany for a suite of dance-pieces in French Baroque style preceded by such an ouverture. This genre was extremely popular in Germany during Bach's day, and he showed far less interest in it than was usual: Robin Stowell writes that "Telemann's 135 surviving examples [represent] only a fraction of those he is known to have written"; Christoph Graupner left 85; and Johann Friedrich Fasch left almost 100. Bach did write several other ouverture (suites) for solo instruments, notably the Cello Suite no. 5, BWV 1011, which also exists in the autograph Lute Suite in G minor, BWV 995, the Keyboard Partita no. 4 in D, BWV 828, and the Overture in the French style, BWV 831 for keyboard. The two keyboard works are among the few Bach published, and he prepared the lute suite for a "Monsieur Schouster," presumably for a fee, so all three may attest to the form's popularity.
Musica Angelica is an internationally renowned Baroque orchestra based in Long Beach, California and led by music director Martin Haselböck, award-winning organist, conductor, and composer. Musica Angelica is dedicated to the historically informed performance of Baroque and early Classical music on period instruments. Its programs include a mixture of known masterworks by composers such as Bach, Handel and Vivaldi, along with rarely heard ‘musical gems’ by lesser-known composers.
Roy Carter is an English oboist.
Paul Goodwin is an English conductor, and former oboist.
Jiří Družecký was a Czech composer, oboist, and timpanist.
Monica Huggett is a British conductor and leading baroque violinist.
David Reichenberg was an American oboist and a highly respected specialist on the baroque oboe. He was born in Cedar Falls, Iowa and learnt the flute, violin and piano as a child. He began his oboe studies with Dr Myron E. Russell of the University of Northern Iowa. Beginning in 1969, Reichenberg studied at the Indiana University School of Music, continuing his oboe studies with Jerry Sirucek, former oboist with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Graduating in 1972, Reichenberg moved to Salzburg, where he attended the Mozarteum. It was in Salzburg that Reichenberg met Nikolaus Harnoncourt, director of Concentus Musicus Wien. Reichenberg became increasingly interested in playing the oboe's repertoire on the instrument for which it had been written and, with the assistance of Harnoncourt, moved to Vienna in order to study baroque oboe with Jürg Schäftlein. He simultaneously studied oboe making with Paul Hailperin, building the instrument upon which he played for four years. Reichenberg took part in many concerts and recordings with Concentus Musicus, and gradually increased his activities with that group.
Graeme Peter Crump, known professionally as Peter Graeme and as 'Timmy' Crump to friends and family, was an English oboist and academic teacher. He was best known as the principal oboist of the Melos Ensemble.
Ray Still was an American classical oboist. He was the principal oboe of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra for 40 years, from 1953–1993.
Helmut Winschermann is a German classical oboist, conductor and teacher. He founded the Deutsche Bachsolisten and has been their conductor since 1960.
Robert Bloom was an oboist with an orchestral and solo career, a composer and arranger contributing to the oboe repertory, and a teacher of several successful oboists. Bloom is considered seminal in the development of an American school of oboe playing.