Bayan Northcott - Oboe Sonata
Press Reviews
Music of Today, Royal Festival Hall, London, 4 October 2004
The Philharmonia's Music of Today season got off to an auspicious start with a rare chance to hear two substantial compositions by the Independent music critic Bayan Northcott. Northcott's Sonata for Solo Oboe (1978) was written when he was 38, but it is his Op 1, and an accomplished and mature example of an earliest acknowledged work.
Gordon Hunt, the principal oboist of the Philharmonia, relished the score's opportunities for virtuosity without endangering its structural cohesion. Scrupulous adherence to the copious dynamic and expressive markings in the mercurial opening movement occasionally came close to an over-literal interpretation, but the eloquently expressive aria-like central movement was most affecting. The charming minuet-rondo finale, stippled with Haydnesque 'Scotch snap' figures, made an effective contrast.
An extended piece for a solo instrument is tough to bring off, but Northcott's fluent single lines succeeded in hinting at their own harmonies. Here was a composer confidently establishing his own voice.
Paul Conway, The Independent Review, 6 October 2004
Bayan Northcott's career as a composer has always had to play second fiddle to his work as a journalist and broadcaster. As he admitted before his Music of Today portrait concert, given by members of the Philharmonia, his Sonata for Solo Oboe is probably the world's most belated Opus 1: the piece was composed when he was 38.
So was it worth the wait? Played by Gordon Hunt, the three-movement work was an elegant study in line and lyricism – the first movement a skittish, febrile fantasy, the second a gentle, song-like lament, the finale a witty rondo. Even if the music lacked individuality, the sonata created an expressive and flexible musical language.
Tom Service, The Guardian, 4 October 2004