Oboe Concerto, H. 353

This concerto has an unusual origin: Martinů wrote it on commission from the Sydney Daily Telegraph to celebrate the 1956 Melbourne Olympics, for a Czech oboist named Jiří Tancibudek who had emigrated to Australia and wanted more Czech music in his repertoire. The three movements (Moderato, Poco andante, Poco allegro) mix syncopated rhythms and folk-like melody in a way that blends Stravinsky's neoclassical energy with Bohemian dance character. Tancibudek himself described the finale as resembling a Czech polka, and the slow movement has a lyrical, song-like quality set against a relatively spare orchestral texture.

What to listen for

At the start of the first movement, the orchestra including a prominent piano part sets up a driving, rhythmically busy prelude before the oboe enters alone with a quiet, song-like melody that sits in deliberate contrast to what came before. In the finale, the piano in the orchestra kicks off the movement before the oboe joins, and the two alternate between lyrical phrases and quicker, dance-like passages throughout. Watch for how the oboe's sustained lines are repeatedly punctuated by short, syncopated figures in the strings.

Recommended recording

Heinz Holliger with the Academy of St Martin in the Fields conducted by Sir Neville Marriner (Philips, 1993) is frequently cited for Holliger's clarity of tone and precise articulation in the outer movements.

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