Bohuslav Martinů - Concerto for Oboe and Small Orchestra

- Composer: Bohuslav Martinů (8 December 1890 -- 28 August 1959)
- Orchestra: Academy of St. Martin in the Fields
- Conductor: Sir Neville Marriner
- Soloist: Heinz Holliger
- Year of recording: 1991

Concerto for Oboe and Small Orchestra, H. 353, written in 1955.

00:00 - I. Moderato
05:00 - II. Poco andante
11:24 - III. Poco allegro

Czech-born Australian oboist Jiří Tancibudek had been performing oboe recitals in Australia following his emigration there, and had been often asked to play more Czech music. Although he had never met Martinů, they had both played in the Czech Philharmonic (albeit 30 years apart). When Tancibudek wrote to the composer in the early 1950s asking for such a piece, he was initially rebuffed. But Martinů wrote again in 1954, saying he would write the work and asked Tancibudek to introduce it to the world.

It was sponsored by the Sydney Daily Telegraph newspaper in celebration of the 1956 Olympic Games in Melbourne. Tancibudek gave the world premiere in August 1956 in Sydney, with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra conducted by Hans Schmidt-Isserstedt.

Tancibudek also gave European premieres in London (27 February 1958 in the BBC Studio in Maida Vale), Hamburg (March 1958), and Vienna, and the North American premiere in Vancouver, Canada. He was due to play the public British premiere at the Proms but time constraints prevented this; instead it was performed at the Proms on 24 August 1959, four days after the composer's death, by Tancibudek's friend Evelyn Rothwell, with her husband Sir John Barbirolli conducting. The Czech premiere took place in 1960, with František Hanták as the soloist.

The score reveals the influence of Igor Stravinsky, including a quotation of a motif from Petrushka in the second movement. The score contains a prominent part for an orchestral piano.

Maurice Bourgue and Guy Porat produced a revised edition of the score in 2008. This edition restores the second cadenza in the last movement (removed at Tancibudek's suggestion), and corrects a number of errors in the solo part. So where I erroneously wrote on a sheet 'improvised oboe cadenza', what you actually hear is the restored 2nd cadenza.