Albinoni, Oboe Concerto Op 9 No 2

Fictitious author of the most famous musical composition of a supposedly baroque era – the Adagio associated with his name –, Tomaso Albinoni was a highly prolific composer although today he is mainly remembered for his instrumental music and, of course, for the Adagio that made his name known to the general public, even though he was not the composer. His musical corpus includes no less than 80 operas, 40 cantatas, 79 sonatas, 50 concertos, and 8 symphonies.

Concerti a cinque
With his instrumental music, he took a step beyond the concerto grosso, initiating a form, the concerti a cinque, which emphasizes a soloist performer facing a reduced orchestral formation. This meant a profound change in the way music was made throughout Europe, since the individual work of the most skilled musician in a small orchestral ensemble, capable of mastering and overcoming all kinds of technical and interpretative difficulties, began to be valued. Thus the foundations were laid for the future virtuosity that would characterize the performer of concertos for solo instrument and orchestra as we know them today.

Concertos for oboe

Among his concerti a cinque, those composed for oboe stand out – at least eight, known – where the instrument is treated in a lyrical and melodic way as it had not been done until then, accompanied by a small string ensemble, consisting of two violins, viola, cello, and basso continuo.

Tomaso Albinoni (1671 - 1751)

Today it is customary to double the orchestral formation because, we imagine, the halls are larger and a greater sonority is required, and also because this way it is realized that we are facing the first concertos for soloist and orchestra, those dating from the first half of the eighteenth century, and whose authorship, now it is, we owe unequivocally to Tomaso Albinoni.

The most celebrated of his oboe concertos is Opus 9, No. 2, in D minor, from his first series of twelve concerti a cinque, printed in Amsterdam in 1722. The entire series is dedicated to Elector Massimilian II Emanuele of Bavaria.

Its movements are the usual three, following the scheme advocated by Vivaldi: fast-slow-fast.

01:30  Allegro e non presto

05:29  Adagio

09:32  Allegro

The rendition is by the ten-year-old oboist, Pijus Paškevičius, at a performance in Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania, in May 2013.