Vilem Veverka/Ensemble 18+

Vivaldi, Bach and Telemann Oboe Concertos

(Supraphon)

THIS group, Ensemble 18+, was a new one to me, and their new disc of oboe concertos by Vivaldi, Telemann and JS Bach represents a sparkling calling card for their crisp and articulate performances of a package of accessible, foot-tapping baroque concertos. Principal soloist is the Czech oboist Vilem Veverka, who came up through the ranks of the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra, with two years in the Berlin Phil as a stipendiary of the Karajan Foundation. He is an unforced, articulate player, joined in Vivaldi’s Double Concerto by Berlin Phil cor anglais player Dominik Wollenweber. The group itself was formed in 2009 with a policy of applying “historically informed performance to a configuration playing modern instruments”; in other words, a bit SCO-ish, which of course works very well. I love the playing on this disc, with Veverka even slipping into the texture the occasional bit of “bendy-note” expressiveness which might cause a few of our more hair-shirted brethren to prickle. Very good stuff here.

Michael Tumelty