Ross Edwards interviewed by Belinda Edwards in the June 2004 Vol. 7 #2 issue of Reeding Matter the newsletter of the Australasian Double Reed Society, of which Belinda is Editor. (Diana Doherty performed Ross’ Oboe Concerto with the MSO at the International Double Reed Conference in Melbourne in July 2004.

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Under what circumstances did you come to write the oboe Concerto?

 

It’s quite a long story. About five years ago my wife Helen and I heard some exquisite double-reed sounds emanating from a house two doors up our street and soon afterwards  made the acquaintance of the house’s occupants, Diana Doherty and her husband Alexandre Oguey, both of whom had recently joined the Sydney Symphony as Principal Oboe and Principal Cor Anglais. We all got on well and our teenage daughter Emily sometimes babysat their little girl, Julie. One day, when we were all having a drink at our house, Diana asked if I would compose something for a new CD she was planning and I responded with Two Pieces for Solo Oboe -‘Yanada’ and ‘Ulpirra’. (The ABC Classics CD ‘Blues for D.D.’ [465 782-2] is available from the Australian Music Centre in Sydney, tel. (02) 9247 4677, e-mail: info@amcoz.com.au and so is the score, which is published by Ricordi London). After that it was inevitable, I suppose, that we should start talking about a concerto, especially as Diana had recently had such a success with Graeme Koehne’s ‘Inflight Entertainment’. At first it was to be a double concerto for both Diana and Alexandre, but as this wouldn’t have been very practical we decided it should be an oboe concerto with a special part for cor anglais (which eventually blossomed into a love duet). After that, everything fell neatly into place. Andrew and Renata Kaldor, who’d  commissioned my Second Symphony, offered to commission the new concerto, and Lorin Maazel agreed to conduct the first performances in the Sydney Opera House.  (Next February he will conduct the U.S. premiere with Diana and the New York Philharmonic).

 

What characteristics of the oboe do you find attractive, and how did this influence your writing for the instrument?

I played the oboe for a while when I was a student, but my heart wasn’t in it and when my teacher suggested I should ‘give the damn thing up’, I took his advice without much hesitation.  For years afterwards my oboe writing was inhibited by my inablility to play it well and I produced skimpy and unchallenging oboe parts. I couldn’t help loving the sound though, especially from performers like Jiri Tancibudek who made it look easy to play, and this inspired me to compose more confidently for the oboe. I’ve grown to love the instrument. Also the cor anglais – I’ve recently completed ‘Water Spirit Song’ for Alexandre Oguey.

 

What characteristics of Diana Dohertys’ playing style influenced the piece?

Of course there were the beautiful full sound, the range of colours and the astonishing technique. These things go without saying – and I should add that Diana’s enthusiasm and confidence were infectious: she clearly wanted the piece to be a real challenge and she kept encouraging me to make it more difficult. I remember faxing one passage to her because I thought it might be unrealistically hard, and about an hour later she played it to me over the phone. Not only that, she played it on Alexandre’s oboe because her own was away being mended! But what really defined the kind of the piece I ended up composing was her theatricality – her physicality. My wife, Helen, insisted that these be exploited and she was right.  All Diana’s performances are inseparable from movement and the impulse to dance. The alertness of her gestures are, to me, like those of a bird. And so the concerto became a piece of music theatre, full of birdsong, with lighting, movement, dance and split-second timing and synchronisation. (Of course, it can also be presented as a straight concert work). Once Diana had memorised the notes (incredibly quickly!) we worked on this other dimension and I was most grateful for the advice of the choreographer Paulina Quinteros. We were all relieved when Lorin Maazel wholeheartedly supported what we were trying to achieve, as did the orchestra and its technical staff and management.

 

Concerto for Oboe and Orchestra (Bird Spirit Dreaming) Composed especially for and dedicated to his friend, the wonderfully gifted oboist Diana Doherty, Ross Edwards has sought, in his Oboe Concerto, to imbue the traditional concerto with elements of theatre, ritual and dance, whilst preserving its concert hall function as an accompanied soloistic display. As we have come to expect from this composer, the texture is dominated by an almost kaleidoscopic interplay of material gleaned from the natural environment and diverse cultural sources, whose symbolic meaning remains ultimately and tantalisingly elusive. There are, however, audible references to other Edwards works, notably Dawn Mantras and Symphony No. 2 (Earth Spirit Songs), whose common theme is renewal. Although it is unlikely that the composer was conscious of a program or narrative, a hidden purport might suggest a lone voice crying in the wilderness, led through various stages of socialisation before re-emerging, transformed into a joyful affirmation of unity embracing diversity. Thus, an opening ‘wild bird’ soliloquy is arrested by what sound like phrases from a Lutheran chorale before embarking on a rhapsodic melodic journey, unified by drones, ritornelli and episodes of canonic variation. This melodic unfolding, with its fleeting references to birdsong, plainsong, Hebrew cantillation, scales from Southeast Asia and rhythmic counterpoint inspired by the sound patterns of insects and frogs, culminates in a love duet between solo oboe and English horn. Finally, the opening ‘wild bird’ motif returns and is ritualised, along with other previous material, into patterns characteristic of Edwards’ maninya (Australian dance-chant) form as a seething, celebratory finale. Ross Edwards’ Oboe Concerto was commissioned for Diana Doherty and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra by Andrew and Renata Kaldor.The world premiere was given in the Sydney Opera House on August 4 2002. Diana Doherty was the soloist with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra conducted by Lorin Maazel. Fred Watson

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here are the questions from my friend Nathan.

 

Thanks for helping out.

 

1. Through your compositions, have you attempted to stretch an oboist’s ability in playing an oboe? if so, are there any specific scores in which you have done so? 

 

2. Have you noticed a recent trend in compositions that include parts for the oboe that in earlier years may have been deemed unplayable or extremely difficult? 

 

3. Through your work with modern oboists, have you noticed an developments in an oboist’s playing technique, or development in the mechanics of the oboe, that allow for extended ranges, or new tone colours to be achieved? 

 

4. Through your compositions, have you developed/ utilised any new playing techniques in order to achieve an extended range or varying tone colours to that of “traditional” oboe pieces?