André Jolivet’s Bassoon Concerto is a sonorous and scintillating work, which really shows off the vocal-like quality and the haunting tone of the bassoon, as well as the spikey and florid writing in which it excels.
Todd Gibson-Cornish Photo: Christie Brewster
Todd Gibson-Cornish has found that it really pushes the limits of what a bassoon can do, and the fast fugue, which closes the work speeds up to the point where it feels out of control.
Although written in 1954, it has a baroque structure with two movements instead of three. And each movement is divided into two parts – first slow, and then fast.
There are no wind instruments in the orchestration, just the soloist plus string orchestra, harp and piano.
Recorded 6 July 2018, Michael Fowler Centre, Wellington by RNZ Concert.
Producer David McCaw
Engineer: Graham Kennedy
