Zoe Kluga - Oboe Recital
Reviewed by Sean Bernard
The oboe. An often-misunderstood instrument that in the hands of a beginner will send people running from the room, and a brace of ducks to join in chorus. However, in the hands of an experienced player this instrument has a beautiful melodic timbre, capable of portraying both darkness and light.
I had the privilege of being a stagehand for the recital of such a player, Zoe Kluga, a recent graduate of the WAAPA’s Bachelor of Music degree. She has an amazing mastery of the instrument, able to express all the subtle nuances that the oboe is capable of. She selected three contrasting pieces for her recital on the 27th of May 2008 in WAAPA’s Music Auditorium, George Frederic Handel’s “Sonata in G Minor”, for Oboe and Harpsichord, Charles M. Loeffler’s “Two Rhapsodies for Oboe, Viola and Piano” and Johann Kaliiwoda’s “Le Morceau de Salon”, Opus 228 for Oboe and Piano.
It was the second piece by Loeffler that I had the chance to listen to unhindered, standing behind a curtain just off stage, hidden from sight from the audience and also leaving me being unable to see the musicians themselves. I appeared to have created for myself a reasonable approximation of Pierre Schaeffer’s “Acousmatic Listening Environment” principle, in the sense that I could hear the sound but not see how it was being created, though I did know what was creating the sound. Listening to the piece of music this way gave it a whole new level of expressiveness and a whole new listening experience. Though the piece was only written for solo oboe, viola and piano, at times it sounded like many more instruments were playing along. The viola line at times resembled an entire string section playing along and the piano would glide along with lyrical subtlety of the flute or the thunderous crash of the entire percussion section. The oboe weaved through these textures with individual textures of it’s own, ranging from dark and sombre to bright and happy.
The overall effect from this veiled listening was that I never got the impression of singular instruments, rather, that there were sections of each instrument, all weaving lead and accompaniment as it was required. It was an amazing listening experience to know what was happening, but to hear something that sounded so different to what it should have been.
Zoe presented all her pieces beautifully and with the utmost professionalism. Stewart Smith’s harpsichord work was impeccable and David Wickham and Aaron Wyatt accompanied beautifully on piano and viola respectively. Though there were only 3 pieces being presented, it took 40 minutes to play through them and the recital ended with a tumultuous applause that lasted for several minutes.
Excellent work Zoe!
