Bruno Maderna
The Oboe Concertos

An equal dialogue. This is the modern form of the concerto for solo instrument. A dialogue where the orchestra and the instrumentalist must not simply stick to a predetermined script, must not passively endure the score, but must, on the contrary, speak, tune, discuss, sometimes clash, to succeed in constructing a sound edifice based on the simple "suggestions" the composer provides like bricks from the blazing furnace of their art. This is the cornerstone upon which Bruno Maderna's three wonderful concertos for oboe and orchestra are based. And now, 85 years after his birth, the message of the great Venetian composer remains more relevant than ever.

In the splendid performance by the great Swiss oboist Heinz Holliger, accompanied on the occasion by the Cologne Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Gary Bertini, these three concertos push the soloist's virtuosity to the extreme through devilishly difficult phrases. They go far beyond that. They convey the necessity of an effort towards dialogue, the tension towards transcendence, the fear of the void, the need to find meaning in a life (and in an art like music) where everything is often trivialized and reduced to a daily routine.

Thus, in concertos No. 1 and No. 2, the composer provides merely a framework that the soloist and conductor can freely develop. There is no alpha and omega. Only possibilities exist. There are crossroads. There are choices to be made or rejected. It is up to the instrumentalist to decide when to start and when to end. These concertos will always have a different duration and sound every time they are played and "experienced". A tension towards the protean and indistinct, therefore, where the boundary between the self and the other is vague and elusive, in an attempt at fusion that is, first and foremost, an act of communion and love for others.

But perhaps it's all an illusion. Because in the masterpiece of the disc, concerto No. 3, Maderna's message seems to suggest the exact opposite. The concerto begins with a long cadenza where the oboe intones its lonely lament. Short, nervous phrases, staccato as harsh as thorns without any rose, piercing and shrill sounds. And it is only around the third minute that the orchestra makes its first appearance. Casting its sinister sonic shadow. The solo part becomes increasingly demanding, pushing the soloist's abilities to the extreme, drowning slowly among a thousand difficulties: sudden dynamic changes, irregular groups of notes to be played at lightning speed, instructions continuously breaking up the rhythm. "Molto scandito", "Sempre fortissimo", "Crescendo", "Tutto legato and so fast as possible". Maderna's instructions become increasingly pressing. Meanwhile, the orchestra grows. Harps, percussion, celesta enter. And then a section of no less than 39 string instruments. And the sound of 14 brass instruments. And thus, the oboe becomes less and less audible, progressively erased by the orchestra's negative forces. It is the victory of society and uniformity over the individual and individuality. At the end of the concerto, the timid voice of the English horn doubles the nasal timbre of the oboe, which gasps disarticulated until its predestined extinction in silence. Its ethereal and pastoral sound drowned by the indifference and the blind and brutal force of the orchestra. The last work of Maderna, and the final farewell of the great Italian composer to the world of sounds and the living.