The Dolci Show

Ted Rust and Viva Knight
  • 5.0 (2)
  • MUSIC

A short program of live music played by Dolci, the oboe-piano duo of Viva Knight and Ted Rust, from their home in Los Angeles, California.

  1. Dolci Show #42: Bill Douglas' Third Oboe Sonata

    04/10/2023

    Dolci Show #42: Bill Douglas' Third Oboe Sonata

    Sonata #3 for Oboe and Piano (2021)                                            Bill Douglas (1944-) Cantando Pastorale Chick: Hommage to Chick Corea Bill Douglas is a Canadian-born bassoonist, pianist and composer who  lives in Boulder, Colorado. He has toured and recorded with the clarinetist Richard Stoltzman since they met in college (Yale, class of 1969). Douglas has written that “(his) basic philosophy of music is that it can be helpful to the world. It can evoke such positive emotions as compassion, tenderness, strength, nobility, upliftedness, and joy.” Bill Douglas provided a performance note: “Do not swing any of this music. Always sing expressively with long, expansive phrasing. Feel free to change slurs, particularly awkward downward ones, in order to make passages easier.” Thanks, Bill. That helped.  This recording is  unedited,  including two squeaks from the oboe and Viva's satisfied chuckle at the end. Scores and recordings of Bill Douglas’ work, including a wonderful CD of vocal rhythm exercises, are available at https://billdouglas.cc. His extensive output of compositions  which feature  oboe, English horn or bassoon is published by TrevcoMusic.com. photo by Fran Hodes, 2023

    14 min
  2. Dolci Show #41: De Bréville's Sonatine for Oboe and Piano

    01/28/2023

    Dolci Show #41: De Bréville's Sonatine for Oboe and Piano

    1. Allègre — 2. Très calme — 3. Vite Pierre Onfroy de Bréville (1861-1949) was a French composer, teacher and critic and a friend of Franck, Debussy and Ravel. His music was elegantly crafted but has not been performed much since his death. His Sonatine for Oboe and Piano (1927) could be the sound track for an imaginary Parisian art exhibit. It first paints a jaunty tapestry of interwoven colors and textures in the spirit of Georges Seurat’s Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte*.  The second movement seems like a serene interlude, perhaps contemplating one of Claude Monet’s paintings from his floating studio on the Seine. The final movement, Vite  is a burst of kinetic exuberance in the spirit of a music hall poster by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. *Property of The Art Institute of Chicago. Featured in Sundays in the Park with George, a musical by Stephen Sondheim

    12 min
  3. Dolci Show #40: Alwyn's Oboe Sonata

    12/29/2022

    Dolci Show #40: Alwyn's Oboe Sonata

    William Alwyn's Oboe Sonata William Alwyn (1905-1985) was a respected English composer, teacher and conductor. He began his musical career as a virtuoso flutist, attended the Royal Academy of Music, and at the age of nineteen he was appointed professor of composition. Alwyn composed dozens of widely performed concert pieces and the musical scores of more than 70 films, including a classic Hollywood swashbuckler, “The Crimson Pirate,” starring Burt Lancaster.    Alwyn’s Oboe Sonata was published in 1934. It has three movements:  I. Moderato e grazioso  II. Andantino  III. Allegro (quasi waltz tempo) The origami flower in the accompanying photo was created by Yukie Echizen.

    17 min
  4. Autumn Night, In Memory of Susan Lynn Yoast (1951-2022)

    08/29/2022

    Autumn Night, In Memory of Susan Lynn Yoast (1951-2022)

    Sue Yoast and Viva Knight became close friends in 2001 when both were newly widowed. Sue was diagnosed with scleroderma, a rare and incurable autoimmune disease, in 2008. She remained valiantly upbeat to the end, a dear friend and a loyal fan of Dolci. We will miss her. Her obituary is at Mykeeper.com. Autumn Night is a new composition by Eric Ewazen , written in memory of oboist Judith Ricker and pianist Joseph Werner of the Eastman faculty, who both died this year.

    5 min
  5. For Martha Mae Jones with love from Dolci

    07/31/2022 · BONUS

    For Martha Mae Jones with love from Dolci

    Felix Mendelssohn, Song Without Words, opus 85 No. 40, arranged for piano and oboe d'amore by David Walter. Fiber art in photo is by Martha Mae Jones.

    3 min
  6. John Williams Oboe Concerto

    05/05/2022

    John Williams Oboe Concerto

    Concerto for Oboe  (Piano reduction) by John Williams (b. 1932) Prelude: Exuberantly, BroadlyPastorale: Moderato, with NostalgiaCommedia: Playfully, JoyfullyJohn Williams is a distinguished American composer, best known for his film scores. In 2005 the American Film Institute selected Williams's score for Star Wars as the greatest film score of all time. He has won 25 Grammy Awards and received 52 Academy Award nominations and 5 Academy Awards. He is also a composer and conductor of concert music. He wrote this concerto in 2011 for Keisuke Wakao, the principal oboist of the Boston Pops Orchestra, of which Williams was music director for many years.  Some composers try to create excitement by forcing the players to struggle with technical difficulties.* Not so John Williams, and certainly not his Oboe Concerto. Williams’ concerto requires practice and precision from the oboist, but mostly it demands fluency, energy and expressiveness in the moment. Its phrases fall naturally within a human breath. The oboe part is written in a range where it can produce a nuanced timbre, can start and end notes precisely, and has a speech-like potential to engage the listener’s emotions. The piano reduction is precisely notated to reproduce the complex ensemble playing and rich sonorities of the Boston strings without risking injury or public humiliation to the pianist. He lets both players’ hands move efficiently without straining for uncomfortably large intervals. This generous gift to the oboists and pianists of the world shows how well Williams can cast spells, play games, evoke moods and tell stories. It is a genial piece, composed in a language of beautiful, logically connected sounds, and with the sweet smile of reason.  _________________________________ Essa-Pekka Salonen stated this in his comments to an audience at Hertz Hall, Berkeley, California, c. 2012. Fascination with virtuosic musical performance as a form of heroism has been part of Western music at least since the early nineteenth century when great soloists like Paganini and Liszt began to be idolized in the press along with popular heroes like Cook, Nelson and Napoleon. _________________________________ Photo by May Phan

    21 min
  7. Dolci Show #38: Hindemith's Oboe Sonata

    11/01/2021

    Dolci Show #38: Hindemith's Oboe Sonata

    Sonata for Oboe and Piano, 1938                           Paul Hindemith (1895-1963) Münter (Lively)Sehr langsam-Lebhaft (Very Slow-Fast)During his frantic last year in Germany before escaping with his family to Switzerland, Paul Hindemith wrote several important works, including his Oboe Sonata. Its first movement is quick and frisky, using overlapping 2-4 and 3-8 meters like the combined gaits of a little girl and her big brother hurrying hand in hand into an unknown forest. Like any a good Gothic story, its sunny beginning and end contrast with darkly threatening episodes. The harmony progresses in disorienting twists from unfamiliar to scary to downright weird. The second movement starts very slowly as a dreamy lullaby in slow 3-4 time, accompanied by a fantastically ornate accompaniment in eighth, sixteenth, thirty-second and sixty-fourth note subdivisions. The lullaby melody breaks into headlong flight as a lively 3-8 fugue, then pauses to hide, dreams, and resumes its running-away (fugue). The second escape winds through a cadence, long-winded enough to rival a Beethoven symphony, and leads us at last to safety.

    15 min
  8. Dolci Show #37: "Suite from an Imaginary Opera" by John Steinmetz

    09/06/2021

    Dolci Show #37: "Suite from an Imaginary Opera" by John Steinmetz

    John Steinmetz (b. 1951) grew up in Oakland, California, attended the California Institute of the Arts and was swept into Los Angeles' freelance whirlpool as a bassoonist and composer. He now teaches at UCLA and lives in Altadena. He wrote about this composition: “Many operas start optimistically but this piece imagines the opposite trajectory, beginning in pessimism or depression and working toward a happy ending... The five movements of the Suite might be scenes or musical numbers drawn from a longer opera... Whether it’s a drama between people or a struggle within a single person are questions for the audience’s imagination.” The movement titles are  AriaDanceRecitativeAriaApotheosis                                                                                     photo © 2010 Charlotte Castro

    18 min
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About

A short program of live music played by Dolci, the oboe-piano duo of Viva Knight and Ted Rust, from their home in Los Angeles, California.

Information

  • Creator
    Ted Rust and Viva Knight
  • Years Active
    2020 - 2023
  • Episodes
    44
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2023 The Dolci Show
  • Show Website
    The Dolci Show