Concert Reviews
October 24th 2019
Our audience is naturally drawn to the familiar fare of string quartets, piano recitals and the like. But they absolutely loved the Lonarc Oboe Trio.
Alongside the music of famous composers, the Trio opened up a fascinating and (to me) little-known part of Classical music through a well-conceived programme, stylish and virtuosic playing, as well as charming and
informative spoken introductions from all three players.
And the closing Variations on ‘Carnival of Venice’ was such fun.
Everyone came out buzzing
and keen to share their
experiences – what more
can a promoter ask for!
Thank you for a memorable
evening.
Justin Lee
Chamber Music Series programmer
Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge
British Double Reed Society
magazine Autumn/Winter 2018
Lonarc Oboe Trio Teatro Isabel la CatoIica, Granada 30th August, as part of IDRS 2018
Joseph Sanders and Owen Dennis, oboes Judy Proctor, cor anglais
The Lonarc Oboe Trio is committed to recording all the original eighteenth-century Viennese/Bohemian oboe trios of the period. In this concert they gave us a fascinating sample of the works they have already researched.
Franz Alexander Possinger (1767-1827) and Johann Wenth (1745-1801) were perhaps not great composers,
but thorough professionals in the company of greatness (Mozart, Haydn, and Beethoven), providing music for court orchestras in Bohemia and Vienna; and in passing they invented the musical ensemble, the oboetrio.
Possinger's Trio in F major combines virtuosity with wit and inventiveness that makes diverting listening. The players' delicate phrasing and superb ensemble no doubt owed much to the cor anglais, just as the music itself owes a debt to the brilliant Teimer family - father and three sons - the first virtuoso players of that instrument. The subtle variations in dynamics were especially admirable in Wenth's Divertimento in B flat, where moods of melancholy were well contrasted with much humour.
TheTrio's former member James Horan (b.1966) continued this in his Variations Humoresques on Carnival of Venice (1995) written specially for the group. This music requires the highest levels of technique: no trouble for the Lonarcs. Ironical, perhaps, that the original audiences probably only heard it as background music - if at all - while they tucked into their banquets!
David Cole
Celia Craig
ARAM
Principal Oboe Adelaide Symphony Orchestra
The sound of an oboe trio is so unique, sonorous: a blend like no other.
In the capable hands of the Lonarc Oboe Trio, Joseph Sanders, Owen Dennis and Judy Proctor, the intimacy and joy of this type of chamber music is truly realised.
The players led by the outstanding Joseph Sanders, have such familiarity with each other and the music that they are able to take risks, to seamlessly blend and to introduce new repertoire to eager ears.
I really enjoyed this concert (in Granada) and especially the wonderfully funny and virtuosic variations by their ex-member James Horan, a tribute to the quality of this ensemble, and to their pioneering attitude.
Simon Emes
Principal Oboe Malaysian Symphony Orchestra
Hearing the Lonarc Oboe Trio in concert reminded me of the excitement and happiness that I first discovered while playing chamber music as a student.
Introductions tinged with humour make these pieces immediately accessible and relevant in our time. The quality is unquestionable and the entire experience in their company, utterly delightful.
Sarah Roper
ARAM
Principal Oboe Real Orquestra Sinfonica de Seville
It was an absolute pleasure to be able to listen to the Lonarc Oboe Trio in Granada, Spain, during the International Double Reed Society 2018 Conference.
We were treated to an interesting and inspiring programme for oboe trio and the witty and clever Variations on `Carnival of Venice´ by James Horan were a complete success. Thank you for participating in this international event.
You were real stars!
Renaud Patalowski
Marigaux SAS
I have been following the Lonarc Oboe Trio for many years and it was an absolute thrill for me to see them playing during the IDRS convention in Granada last Summer.
I was astonished not only by the quality of their music, their skills and performance which require a lot of… ‘doigté’, but pleased also by the humour the audience could perceive in the way the Ensemble performed and directed their pieces.
When music is played in a serious way but not seriously, it gives back an outstanding level of accomplishment.
Thank you so much for the enthusiasm !
Martin Voříšek
Český Krumlov Chamber Music Festival Assistant Director
I was delighted to have the Lonarc Oboe Trio within the programme of our festival.
I highly appreciate their musicianship as well as their commitment to search for the historical origins of the music for oboe trios
Judith Weir
CBE Master of the Queen's Music
Composer (and former oboist)
This taken from Judith's website blog page section.
In leafy Burgh House (pictured) a concert by the Lonarc Trio celebrated the life of British oboist Robin Miller (1942-2014). I wasn’t going to miss this, as Robin had been my oboe teacher during my last two years at school, a period when he became co-principal oboe of the BBC Symphony Orchestra and also played with a wild new group called the London Sinfonietta. I can even remember him recording a track with Robert Fripp of King Crimson.
Just thinking about this period brought back not just Robin, but the incredible wave of musical creativity that hit London during those years. As a schoolgirl from the outer suburbs, I already knew I was fortunate to be experiencing it via my oboe lessons, even when dragging myself through the Gillet Studies (don’t ask). At the BBCSO Robin worked daily with their then principal conductor Pierre Boulez, and he would come home with amazing anecdotes. ‘Boulez asked us to play a note of shimmering golden fire, for as long as possible, sounding all round the universe...’ (this may have been the legendary day the BBCSO decided to tackle Stockhausen’s Setz die Segel zur Zonne.)
Suave and witty in person, Robin was also an actual craftsman, able to approach the fraught area of reed-making with considerable technical skill. Introducing this concert by the Lonarc Trio, Mary Miller rightly pointed out the litter of oboe stuff, Rizla papers, water containers, reed knives on the floor beneath the performers’ feet, extremely familiar to her from her years married to an oboist. The Lonarc Trio, two oboes and cor anglais, play Mozart-era original music. We learned that this repertoire (including a Beethoven Trio) bloomed thanks to the recent invention of the cor anglais, whose name should in fact be ‘cor angelique’. I marvelled at the stamina of these fine professionals, able to play their physically exhausting instruments continuously for ninety minutes, with unfailing sprightliness and invention.
Robert Ogden
ARNCM
Artistic Director of Northern Aldborough Festival
I just wanted to write formally to thank you for your trio's wonderful concert last Monday at Farnley Hall.
It was a fascinating programme and I am very struck by your commitment to uncovering and programming this beautiful music. I also thought you sounded wonderful in the venue in front of such a large audience.
Thankyou also for your outreach performance, which I know was very gratefully received at the school.