The three different oboes used on this recording of music by
Christopher Tyler Nickel really jump out of the texture. This may be due to the Avie label's engineering work in an acoustically striking chapel at Washington state's Bastyr University; no amplification is specified. It's also true that
Nickel's three concertos are, in some sense, about the problem of balance in music for oboe. The problem is solved in various ways across the three works. In the first movement of the opening Concerto for oboe (2012),
Nickel defines distinct realms for orchestra and oboe, bringing them together only after they are clearly established. Many listeners may be drawn by the Concerto for bass oboe of 2016, for this lovely instrument is rarely heard outside
Gustav Holst's The Planets, and
Nickel offers an energetic finale of a sort that wouldn't have been possible with the other two instruments. Only in the two-movement Concerto for oboe d'amore (2014) does
Nickel turn the temperature down on the entire work, in line with the instrument's delicate sound. An enjoyable and skillful set of neoclassic concertos for anyone, this release will be essential for wind players and their associated enthusiasts.