Accompanied by the Concerto Köln, Benoit Laurent, the Belgian oboist who performs primarily early music compositions plays Antonio Vivaldi’s Oboe Concerto in C major, RV 450.
Antonio Vivaldi’s Oboe Concerto in C major, RV 450
The oboe, along with the bassoon and Baroque flute, originated in 17th-century Paris and took a few decades to become popular throughout Europe. In the 1700s, it was introduced to Venice as a German import.
Antonio Vivaldi composed around 16 oboe concertos, with approximately half of them either adaptations of earlier concertos for different instruments or later reworked into concertos for other instruments. It is likely that the concerto RV 450 is a modification of his bassoon concerto, RV 471, which could explain the active bass heard in the first movement’s ritornellos.
The three movements are:
- Allegro molto
- Larghetto
- Allegro
Benoit Laurent
Benoit Laurent studied recorder, modern oboe, and baroque oboe in Belgium (with F. de Roos, P. Dombrecht, A. Vanlancker, and S. Cremers), then he studied the baroque oboe in Germany with M. Niesemann.
In 2008 he got a second prize at the prestigious competition for early music “Musica Antiqua” in Bruges, in the category of the soloist.
He teaches the baroque oboe at the Conservatoire Royal de Bruxelles and at the Hochschule für Musik Würzburg. He has also taught the baroque oboe at the H.F.M. Frankfurt from 2010 to 2013.
He recorded two Sammartini concerti for the oboe with les Muffatti for the label Ramée (2011), Lebrun’s C-major Oboe Concerto with les Agremens (2011), and with his own ensemble Lingua Franca, a German oboe band music cd for the label Ricercar (2010) a solo recital with german sonatas (2012) and Bach’s Oboe and Violin Concerto with Kammerorchester Basel for Deutsche Harmonia Mundi (2014).
His last recording focused on the English repertoire for the Baroque oboe (Mr. Handel’s Musicians, 2018).
Benoît also gives concerts in orchestra and chamber music with some of the best ensemble on period instrument (Concerto Köln, B’rock, Collegium Vocale Gent, Anima Eterna, Orchestre des Champs Elysées, Il Gardellino, etc).
He has played concerto as a soloist with many of the best orchestras on the period instruments (Concerto Köln, Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, la Stagione Frankfurt, Basel Kammer Orchester, Zürcher Kammerorchester, les Agremens, Les Muffatti, etc).
Sources
- Benoit Laurent’s official website
- Chopin: Scherzo No. 3 [İlyun Bürkev] - September 14, 2024
- César Franck: Violin Sonata [Argerich, Capuçon] - September 8, 2024
- Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 23 “Appassionata” [Anna Fedorova] - September 7, 2024