Composer: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Richard Strauss
Performer: Cristina Gómez Godoy
Orchestra: West-Eastern Divan Orchestra
Conductor: Daniel Barenboim
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Warner
Catalogue: 9029507760
Release: 2022
Size: 912 MB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
Mozart: Oboe Concerto In C major, K314
01. I. Allegro aperto
02. II. Adagio non troppo
03. III. Rondo – Allegretto
Strauss: Oboe Concerto in D
04. I. Allegro moderato
05. II. Andante
06. III. Vivace
“I couldn’t have imagined a better constellation for my first album!” says Cristina Gómez Godoy about her first recording. She has chosen this repertoire because these pieces made her fall in love with the instrument and music. As a musician in Daniel Barenboim’s Berlin-based orchestra, she feels very privileged to have recorded her first album with him, accompanied by the West Eastern Divan Orchestra, with whom she has played for many years
An underappreciated aspect of conductor Daniel Barenboim’s career has been the degree to which he has mentored young musicians. Oboist Cristina Gómez Godoy was a member of Barenboim’s West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, leading to this debut album featuring the two major concertos of the classical repertory, those by Mozart (the Oboe Concerto in C major, K. 314, which also exists as a flute concerto) and Richard Strauss (the Oboe Concerto in D major). The album is sparse at less than 47 minutes, and one of Albinoni’s oboe concertos as a curtain-raiser might not have been out of place, but Gómez makes a good case for the program as is. The Strauss concerto is one of a group of late works in which he returned to a Classical spirit, and it has a kinship with Mozart that runs like a thread through Strauss’ creative life. Gómez’s lively performances of both works catch this, and perhaps the album’s strongest feature is the crisp fit between soloist and the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra under Barenboim’s direction. It’s the kind of concerto performance that occurs only when soloist and conductor have worked closely together for some time, and Gómez and Barenboim obviously have. A pleasing offering, enhanced by appropriate, focused sound from the Pierre Boulez Saal in Berlin.