Good winds blow to perfection

By WILLIAM DART

The very idea of split reeds is every oboe player's nightmare, but, with a slight tweak and a nod to the Finn brothers, Split Reedz becomes a natty title for a Saturday night concert that is more than a little out of the ordinary.

Martin Lee, Ngaire de Korte and Madeline Sakofsky make up the oboe section of the Auckland Philharmonia and, in this programme of music from Bach to Berio, they will prove that Bennet Cerf's malicious quip that "an oboe is an ill wind that nobody blows good" is totally unfounded.

In fact, the AP oboes are invariably sweet and Lee admits it is "wonderful having the tunes all to yourself because some of the greatest melodies are written for the oboe".

His favourite is the Serenata from Stravinsky's Pulcinella, although when I mention the plaintive oboe tune from the second movement of Tchaikovsky's Fourth, his brow creases. "That's a hard one to pull off with all those even quavers; it's so difficult to get the lilt it needs."

There is a real Australian connection in this trio - like Lee, de Korte also hails from across the Tasman, and all three players studied at the Victorian College of Arts - and Saturday's programme features two Australian composers, Graham Powning and George Dreyfus. Dreyfus is, by all accounts, a bit of a wild card, best known for his film and television music.

His Larino Safe Haven is "a whimsical piece", Lee says. "It takes its name from the boys' home in Melbourne where George stayed when he was a war refugee in 1939." As a student, Lee was one of the oboe trio which premiered the piece.

The centrepiece of the concert is Berio's 1969 Sequenza for Solo Oboe, played by de Korte. It is a New Zealand premiere and a timely tribute to the composer who died a few months ago.

"Most oboists admit they can't play it," Lee explains. "I have looked at it and tried to get my head round the score, but you're talking of a year's work. And Ngaire has done that.

"The difficulty is that it is technically right out there, at the cutting edge. It was written with Heinz Holliger, one of the greatest oboe players who ever lived. Berio asked him what he could do, so Holliger put all these ideas out for him to draw from."

Lee is an ardent admirer of the Swiss oboist and recommends chasing up two Philips compilation CDs, Bach at Bedtime and Baroque at Bathtime, for superb specimens of Holliger's solo work - "all slow movements and all divine".

It is the openness of the European players that appeals to Lee. "They're much more cerebral and more likely to push the limits of the instruments.

"The English tradition is more lyrical and pastoral, while the Americans are so insular. They tend to isolate and worship individual players."

As with most music, it is a case of being aware of resources. "If you get too wound up in the sound, your possibilities diminish. In the end you have to use lots of different tone colours to make the sound interesting, otherwise you are limiting yourself."

After Saturday's concert, Lee, de Korte and Sakofsky have more dates lined up. In November there will be three appearances as part of the Ensemble Philharmonia concerts, including the possibility of a new work from John Rimmer.

Next year, there is always the hope of getting across the Tasman to the International Double Reed Festival.

"That is if we can nip over between orchestra schedules. We can't have the whole oboe section disappearing," Lee says.

Preview

* What: Split Reedz

* Where and when: University Music Theatre, Saturday 7.30pm