LOUIS KLEMCKE

Albrecht Mayer is always keen to expand the oboe repertoire, whether with adaptations of other instrumental or vocal works, or with rediscovered original gems. Louis Klemcke’s Linda-Fantasy, which Mayer and pianist Kimiko Imani perform so magnificently on this track, is one such original piece, unearthed just a few years ago. In the 19th century the opera-fantasy genre was hugely popular. The now-forgotten German oboist-composer Klemcke here draws on Donizetti’s Linda di Chamounix (1842), using some of the opera’s finest bel canto melodies to create this virtuosic multi-sectional work, which shows how close the oboe can sound to the human voice.