Christopher Palameta (oboe), Olivia Sham (piano)

Charles Nicholas Bochsa (1789-1856), Gustave Vogt (1781-1870), Stanislas Verroust (1814-1863), Henri Brod (1799-1839), Friedrich Kalkbrenner (1785-1849), Johann Peter Pixis (1788-1874), Sigismund Thalberg (1812-1871), Louis Emmanuel Jadin (1768-1853), Robert Schumann (1810-1856)

• Bochsa: Nocturne in D minor, Op. 50 No. 1
• Brod: Elegie sur la mort d'un objet cheri
• Jadin, L: Nocturne in A minor
• Kalkbrenner: Nocturne in A flat major, Op. 121, No. 1
• Pixis: Romanze in E minor, Op. 35
• Schumann: Mondnacht (No. 5 from Liederkreis, Op. 39)
• Thalberg: Serenade de L'Amant jaloux de Gretry
• Verroust: Aranjuez - Fantasie espagnole, Op. 34
• Vogt, G: Vocalises de Crescentini

‘It is simply a badge of historical injustice that oboists must wear.’ Such was the lament of Leon Goosens, echoing the commonly-held view that the nineteenth century was a time of crisis in the history of the oboe. Like a snowball effect, the idée reçue that the instrument fell into disuse because it was considered incompatible with the aesthetics of Romantic expression has been handed down across generations. This recording unearths a handful of evocative compositions from early nineteenth-century France to provide a reassessment of this commonly-held view. These works, all of which have never been recorded before, belong to a large corpus of neglected nineteenth-century chamber music for oboe and fortepiano, and bear witness to a lively, dynamic tradition of wind playing in France. Performed here on a ten-keyed French oboe by Guillaume Adler (Paris, c.1835) and a fortepiano by Erard (Paris, 1840), these sentimental and lyrical rarities beautifully highlight the unique timbres and playing characteristics of these rare original models.