Introduction et Polonaise
by Adolphe-Edouard-Marie Deslandres 1840 - 1911

In 1862 he became the organist at the Church of Sainte-Marie, where his father worked as a bandmaster. Deslandres composed several successful comic operas and in 1872 the opera Dimanche et Lundi was premiered at the Opera-Comique and found great appreciation from Gounod. In 1884 there followed the premiere of
Le Baiser.

Other compositions include organ and piano works including an Air de ballet and Concert Etudes en staccato for a large orchestra and four Meditations for Violin, Cello, French Horn and Harp.

Deslandres had two brothers and a sister who also followed musical careers the latter being a singer.

Introduction is a gentle barcarolle with a minimum of restlessness in the piano accompaniment. The Polonaise resembles the polacca movements of Verroust and Colin works, but the passage work is more intricate, and the style suggests Ambroise Thomas or Sarasate. The Polonaise is a test of a player’s endurance, as there are two trios separating the main sections of the movement.

Oboe Sonata
by Henri Dutilleux b 1916

Henri Dutilleux was born in Angers, France in 1916 and is regarded as a highly esteemed French composer of mostly orchestral, chamber and piano works that have been performed throughout the world.

He studied counterpoint, harmony and piano with Victor Gallois at the Conservatoire National de Musique de Douai, where he graduated in 1933. His musical education was completed with composition instruction from Henri-Paul Büsser, counterpoint and fugue with Noël Gallon, harmony with Jean Gallon, music history with Maurice Emmanuel, and orchestral conducting with Philippe Gaubert at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris from 1933-38.

Prof. Dutilleux was also active in other positions. He served as choral director at the Opéra de Paris in 1942-43 and worked for Radio France in Paris from 1943-63, where he served as director of music productions from 1945-63.

He taught composition at the École Normale de Musique de Paris from 1961-70 and composition as a guest professor at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris in 1970-71. He also lectured twice at Tanglewood in 1995 and 1998. He is married to the pianist Geneviève Joy.

His works are few but they are of great breadth and are very elaborate with a character which is unique and explores the depths of his inner ideas and sensibility. The sonata for Oboe and Piano was written in 1947.

First performance at HCMS concerts.

Sonata for Oboe and Piano Op.166
by Camille Saint-Saëns 1835 - 1921
I: Andantino
II: Allegretto
III: Molto allegro

Camille Saint-Saëns was a French composer, pianist, organist and writer. A gifted, fluent and prolific composer, he embodied in his works many of the essential French qualities, above all clarity and order, and impressed a whole generation with his intellectual mastery of the art and his lucid interpretations at the keyboard. His father died when he was only a few months old and he was a sickly child suffering with tuberculosis. His aunt started to teach him the piano when he was two and a half years old. He had perfect pitch and showed Mozartian precocity by composing his first piano piece a little after his third birthday. His elegant performances as a child prodigy of Bach, Handel and Mozart were remarkable. He mastered Latin, and took a great interest in astronomy, archaeology, philosophy, mathematics and the natural sciences. Among his admirers were Berlioz, Rossini and Gounod. He composed sacred and secular works, many songs, operas, much orchestral music including several concertos. He was a prolific composer for the piano and chamber groups writing sonatas for cello, violin, oboe, clarinet and bassoon.

The writing is facile throughout with a graceful Andantino, a beautifully flowing Allegretto introduced with an ad libitum oboe recitative. It is one of the most outstanding works in the repertoire, full of ingenious charm.

Last performed at HCMS concerts by Jane Evans and Julian Rolton on
17th February 1990 and by Malcolm Messiter with John Lenehan on
15th November 1997.

Sonata for oboe and piano
by Francis Poulenc 1899 - 1963
I: Elegie (Paisiblement)
II: Scherzo (Très Animé)
III:Deploration (Très calme)

Poulenc spent most of his life in Paris working as a composer and pianist. He came to prominence during the First World War as one of 'Les Nouveaux Jeunes' encouraged by Satie and Cocteau. In 1920 he was one of the composers designated 'Les Six' by the critic Henri Collet. He wrote the ballet suite Les Biches for Diaghilev in 1923 and composed music for a variety of ensembles and many songs, but few large orchestral pieces.

Poulenc composed six sonatas for different instruments with piano from 1943 onwards and his last two works are the clarinet sonata and this oboe sonata, written in 1962. It is dedicated to the memory of his friend Prokofiev and was first performed in 1963 at the Strasbourg Festival. It opens with a slow elegy, the theme of which could be by Prokofiev himself. The scherzo, by contrast, is typical Poulenc - playful and lively, with a percussive piano part. The tempo is interrupted briefly for a tender romantic passage. The feeling behind the last movement is clear from the title ‘deploration’ (Lament) and the tempo, ‘very calm’, making a serene conclusion to Poulenc's last major composition.

Rapsodie for Cor Anglais
by Claude Debussy 1862 - 1918

Many misconceptions surround Debussy’s Rhapsodie Mauresque for saxophone; its date of composition, its orchestration and even its title are all called into question by musicologists. It was written for the American Saxophonist, Elise Hall. The decision to transcribe the work to the Cor Anglais by John Harle seems logical, as Debussy uses the mellow double reed instrument prominently in his orchestral scores such as La Mer  whereas he wrote of the Saxophone:

“It is an aquatic animal with a reed [of whose] timbres and practices I know poorly.” 

The Rhapsodie is divided into two sections and has two main influences synonymous with Debussy’s compositional style: a Spanish influence and a military influence. The opening melodic section is somewhat melancholy and reflective, and the first statement of the Cor Anglais is the main theme of the work, improvisatory and arabesque-like in character.

Debussy’s characteristic cross rhythm, a “three against two feel” of triplets and duplets pervade the lively second section Allegretto Scherzando and Plus vite. The final section of the work contains brilliant flourishes and scalic runs that bring the work to an exhilarating close.

Last performed at HCMS concerts by Federico Mondelci (Saxophone) and
Kathryn Stott on 23rd March 2002 and by Malcolm Messiter with John Lenehan on
15th November 1997.

Oboe Sonata (Andante and Scherzo)
by Charles Koechlin 1867 – 1950

Koechlin was a French composer and teacher who was born in Paris and initially considered a career in the military. After an illness he settled on music in 1889, studying at the Paris Conservatoire under Jules Massenet, Gabriel Fauré, and
André Gédalge (1856–1926).

He wrote in several styles, sometimes a severe Baroque counterpoint, as in the fugue that opens his second symphony, sometimes 'impressionistically' as in the tone poem 'Au Loin', or, as in the second symphony's scherzo, yet more astringently. He was fascinated by the movies and wrote many 'imaginary' film scores and works dedicated to the Hollywood actress Lillian Harvey, on whom he had a crush. He also composed an Epitaph for Jean Harlow.

Koechlin wrote a compendious textbook on the subject of orchestration. He was interested in using unusual instruments, notably the saxophone and the early electronic instrument the Ondes Martenot. The Oboe Sonata was composed in the period 1911-16 and was one of many pieces written by Koechlin for solo instruments or small chamber ensembles.

© Programme notes by Dr Martin Hudson