Bassoon discoveries
A new release from Naxos featuring one of Australasia’s finest bassoonists
I’ve always liked the bassoon, those dark, characterful tones bubbling through an orchestral texture, its agility in classical obbligato passages (think of the Overture to The Marriage of Figaro) and the marvellous solo melody that begins the opening dawn chorus of Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring. So I was delighted when a new CD of chamber music featuring the instrument arrived in the mail.
Like me, you probably haven’t heard before of the German composer Joseph Christian Willibald Michl. He was, however, a successful contemporary of Mozart and Haydn, praised for both his operas and instrumental music. Perhaps his retiring personality and the fact that he spent much of his adult life in monastic institutions meant he didn’t promote his appealing music and it died with him.
“I don’t know who Michl wrote for,” says New Zealand bassoonist Ben Hoadley, who features on the new album. “It was definitely a particular person, maybe the same bassoonist Mozart wrote for.” Certainly, in a period when the instrument was only just finding a regular place in ensembles, the Munich-based composer wrote a surprising number of engaging compositions for bassoon.
Hoadley discovered Michl’s music when his bassoon student Kate Nelson prepared a performance edition of these six ‘Quartets for bassoon and strings’ when studying editing at the University of Auckland. He was unexpectedly overwhelmed by their charm and Michl’s accomplished writing. “They are beautiful – perfect!” he tells me.
The Quartets on the new album reveal charming, graceful music in the conversational style of Haydn. Suave melodic lines, a genial atmosphere and reasonably predictable harmonies are splendidly enlivened by virtuosic writing for the bassoon, the main protagonist throughout. Michl clearly revels in the distinctive chocolate-rich timbre of the instrument and treats it more often as soloist than ensemble member.
Hoadley is joined by Lara, Amalia and Callum Hall playing as the Hall String Trio. The performance by the quartet is delightfully stylish and unfussy with effortless flexibility and a beautifully balanced sense of ensemble.
Ben Hoadley, bassoonist/composer
- a new piece “reminiscent of the stillness and solitude felt by New Zealanders during Level 4 lockdown”.
Photo credit: Charles Brooks
The release is a timely boost for Hoadley during a period when COVID-19 has significantly changed the shape of his busy professional life. One of Australasia’s finest bassoonists, for many years he has spent more than half his professional time in Australia. He left New Zealand aged just eighteen to study at the Sydney Conservatorium and was immediately employed on a casual basis by the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. “I like free-lancing,” he says “and I’ve been very lucky to play with every orchestra in Australia and New Zealand except Perth. As a free-lancer I was always working.”
He is still teaching, sometimes remotely, but admits missing live performance and the social life and collegial banter that goes with playing in an orchestra. “The past four months is the longest time I’ve ever spent without performing in public on instruments or voice - since primary school!” His contract as Acting Principal Bassoon with the Queensland Symphony is on hold; after playing one concert for them in February, he came home to New Zealand and has been unable to return to Brisbane since. “It’s very sad because it was going to be such a good year with that orchestra, with really good programmes planned.”
Happily the hiatus has allowed this versatile musician to spend more time on his other love, composition. Hoadley recently won the SOUNZ Brass Composition Prize for 2020 for Haratua for trombone and piano, one of several new chamber works he has created under lockdown. His piece explores the lyrical side of the trombone and he describes it as “reminiscent of the stillness and solitude felt by New Zealanders during Level 4 lockdown over April and May 2020.” Haratua/May is the 12th lunar month in the Māori year.
“When I’m running around playing hours a day in an orchestra and teaching as well, I don’t have the head space for composing - I’ve got other people’s music in my head,” Hoadley says. “What’s been amazing about this experience is that every day I’ve walked for hours on the beach at East Coast Bays – and all this music has come. My new Suite for flute, bassoon and piano is about to be played in Waikato, and I’ve also written Strange Flowers for the Jade String Quartet. I’ve been saving up these compositions for a while.”
Joseph Christian Willibald Michl Quartets for Bassoon and Strings Ben Hoadley, Bassoon, The Hall String Trio (Naxos) is available at Marbecks
Watch SOUNZ film of Ben Hoadley’s prize-winning Haratua played by David Bremner (trombone) and David Barnard (piano)
Ben Hoadley is soloist with the NZSO in Alex Taylor’s Bassoon Concerto in a recent SOUNZ virtual concert here
The premiere of Ben Hoadley’s Strange Flowers for the Jade Quartet will take place at an Auckland concert Celebrating Ten Years at the Pah Homestead on 2 August at 5:15pm