Ordinarily an hour of unaccompanied oboe is a prescription for aural fatigue. However, Yeon-Hee Kwak’s multi-leveled mastery, exemplary musicianship, and intelligent program building command your undivided attention. Her innate affinity for the Bach Partita’s dance rhythms is such that the breath pauses never impede the overall rhythmic flow. The long sustained lines in the first movement of C.P.E. Bach’s Sonata ravishingly demonstrate Kwak’s suave tonal control in all registers. Kwak plays the lightweight yet skillfully honed and Poulenc-like Silvestrini etudes with effortless facility and elegant phrasing. Lastly, anyone who doubts that Astor Piazzolla’s sultry, smoky syntax belongs to the oboe will be proven wrong by Kwak’s incisive and idiomatic renditions of the six Tango-Etudes. No oboe lover should miss this gorgeously engineered release.
