Holliger/Kurtág - Zwiegespräche review | Andrew Clements's classical album of the week

The Guardian 80

Holliger/Schupbach/Wegener/Molinari
(ECM)
Composer and oboist Heinz Holliger and kindred spirit György Kurtág celebrate the former’s works with peerless rapport

Heinz Holliger is not only the greatest oboist of the last half century, but he has also emerged as one of the leading European composers of his generation, even though inthe UK at least his music remains little known, and a number of his major works, including his first opera Schneewittchen, and his superb Violin Concerto, have yet to be performed here. Holliger was 80 last month, and ECM, which has recorded so many of his works, has marked the occasion with Zwiegespräche (dialogues). It’s a collection mostly of miniatures, 33 of them, almost all including oboe, by Holliger and his kindred musical spirit, György Kurtág, that is followed by one of Holliger’s earliest works, the solo-oboe sonata he began in 1956.