The listener can be excused, if when asked about Spanish Baroque composers, the names Joan Baptista Pla and Josep Pla don't immediately spring to mind. The Pla brothers were well known as virtuosos on the oboe and other instruments, and after traveling throughout Europe as performers, they settled in Württemberg as court musicians in 1755. In their published scores, these compositions are attributed simply to "Sgrs. Pla." Most of these chamber pieces were composed for amateurs to perform in their homes, but the music is anything but simple by today's standards. The works recorded here include trio sonatas for two oboes and continuo, a trio sonata with a violin replacing the second oboe, and a sonata for a single oboe and continuo. The brothers were about a generation younger than
Vivaldi, and their trio sonatas resemble his in their structure and harmonic language. There are enough idiosyncratic moments in these sonatas, though, to make them recognizable as being just outside the mainstream of the late Baroque tradition.
Rossi Piceno performs the works on reproductions of period instruments, and the oboes have slightly wilder, less-controlled sound that is most charming and timbrally eccentric in the only piece recorded that was written for a professional level player, the solo sonata. The playing is all lovingly nuanced and spirited -- it's clear that the performers are having a good time, which is just what the music was written for. The sound quality is clean and crisp.