Music of the Day, 18 April 2025

Bach + oboe = bliss

I actually listened to today’s featured piece yesterday. It was quite pleasant and I enjoyed it, but it was easily supplanted by the powerful memories yesterday’s MotD evoked. And I didn’t give the classical piece another thought after just one listen.

Until this morning, at least. Wanting to move out of the waiting place today with one project, I started thinking about what I wanted to listen to to facilitate that. “That Bach piece” immediately came to mind. I found it in my YouTube history and started the video … and this time I watched the performers for a few minutes.

Okay, I ended up watching the entire piece and then listened to it again when I started working. I couldn’t pry my eyes away from oboe soloist Emma Black performing Oboe Concerto in F Major (BWV 1053r), first because of the beautiful baroque oboe, then because of her technique. Having been a middling (at best) oboist my junior year of high school, I’m still fascinated by the instrument and wonder how I might have been able to improve. It’s hard to tell for sure given the differences between her oboe and the modern one I played, but it looks like she has most of the double reeds in her mouth. My approach was the opposite and may have been the source of my difficulties. (If there are any oboists reading, please feel free to share your thoughts.)

Back to the music, though: it is sublime. Black’s tone is warmer than the modern oboe, but it retains that distinct reedy quality that I appreciate in it and related instruments (and one human voice). The strings and pianist supporting her are an ideal accompaniment to this revised Bach composition. This concerto—as its Netherlands Bach Society page recounts—was originally composed as a keyboard concerto in E Major, hence its BWV notation as “1053r.”

Listening to it this morning as I commenced work, it put me into such a deep zone that I wasn’t pulled out when the concerto was over. That’s a very rare thing for me, and compelling evidence that I need to put it in my regular rotation of work music.

This is just the second piece I’ve featured from the Netherlands Bach Society’s “All of Bach” video project.¹ Methinks I need to explore the channel more frequently.

1. the first is Flute Partita in A Minor (BWV1013), performed by Marten Root