Transformed in the 1960s after having been severely damaged by the bombardments in the war, the church of St John's in Smith Square, in Westminster, became one of the major concert halls of the British capital. It was there that this very fine recording, dating from 1991, with the great oboist, conductor and composer Heinz Hollinger, his wife Ursula on the harp and Aurèle Nicolet, who was the solo flautist of the Berlin Philharmonic in the days of Furtwängler.
This is an homage to the Swiss musician, with the performers listed above, as well as three composers, Bohuslav Martinů, Arthur Honegger and Frank Martin – who were the friends and protégés of the great patron – and Paul Sacher, the Basel conductor. Conducted by Sir Neville Marriner, we are treated to the Three Dances for Oboe, Harp and Strings which Martin wrote in 1970 for his friends, the Holligers. Strongly influenced by the flamenco which his dancer daughter discovered, Frank Martin wrote a strikingly youthful piece – he was eighty at the time – which isn't an attempt at "Hispanism", but it is fed by the slanted rhythms of Spain.
Written in 1948 for the American patron Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge, the Concerto da camera by Arthur Honegger returns to the French vein of his youth, with a bucolic feel that wouldn't have been out of place in a work by Aaron Copland. The Concerto for Oboe and Small Orchestra, written in 1956 on the Côte d’Azur dates from a happy period in Martinů's life after the horrors of the Second World War. This is a serene work which holds a distant memory of his Czech youth. © François Hudry/Qobuz