Pasculli: Operatic Fantasias for Oboe

Paisov, Ivan, Shcherbakova, Natalia

8.570567

As the title of the album suggests, each work is full of wonderful adaptations and variations on opera melodies. The program is a Fantasy on Donizetti’s Poliuto, a Concerto based on Donizetti’s Favorita, the Grand Concerto on themes from Verdi’s Sicilian Vespers, a Fantasy on Meyerbeer’s Huguenots, and the Ricordo di Napoli: Scherzo brillante.

This is Paisov and Shcherbakova’s second contribution to the recorded oboe and piano repertoire with Naxos [the first was The Russian Oboe, 8.570596 - Ed]…All five of these pieces are a delight, but the best is the Grand Concerto on themes from Verdi’s Sicilian Vespers, which can also be heard with Katsuya Watanabe and David Johnson on Profil There is a clear distinction between the performances of these two oboists, and I prefer Paisov.
The music makes so much more sense in this performance, not to mention that most of it is more thrilling. Watanabe’s performance is almost six minutes longer; I wonder how it is really possible to add that much length to it. The starkest contrast is between their tempos in the first half of the work.
Paisov and Shcherbakova play so the listener can easily hear and hold onto the melody; Watanabe and Johnson elongate the phrases so much that the music seems to become subordinate to the tempo. The performance here is virtuosic and brimming with polish. • American Record Guide, December 2008

CD x 1

Naxos

6/16/08

747313056774