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		Quintet for Oboe and Strings
	1.	Allegro (6:06)    Listen: RealAudio or MP3
	2.	Lento (6:17)
	3.	Allegretto (5:07)
		Six Bagatelles
	4.	F, Moderate, flowing (3:02)
	5.	C, Fast and bright (2:04)
	6.	E-flat, Moderate with elegance (2:38)
	7.	G, Lightly, with humor (2:01)
	8.	B-flat, Moderately fast (3:30)
	9.	D, Quite fast (1:22)
		Three Bagatelles
	10.	D, Flowing, not too fast
	11.	B-flat, Moderately fast
	12.	D, Very fast (1:23)
		Three Bagatelles
	13.	B-flat, Rather fast (1:35)
	14.	D, Flowing (3:13)
	15.	F, Very fast (0:57)
	16.	Overture for Clarinet (6:50)

 

Also Available on Capstone
Robert Baksa: CPS-8608

 

Releated Links
Robert Baksa

"The cover of this disc proclaims The Quintet . . . is quite simply, a very beautiful pieces of music. Fanfare Magazine. Fortunately the review was in Volume 8, No. 1, the earliest issue covered by the Seagulls Fanfare Index, else I might not have found it. There Paul Snook also says many things Capstone would rather not quote, such as Can the revulsion against our centurys moral horrors and esthetic distortions be carried any further toward derrière-garde obliviousness? I could go on, but reissue rules demand brevity. The music is all pleasant, yes, even lovely, and it all belies its dates of composition (1972-1981) by a century or so. Performances especially Lucarellis oboe playing are gorgeous, and the CD transfers are clean and clear. This is twentieth century music for the most reactionary tastes. But not for me."

 

20^th Century Music - January 1998 - by Carolyn Hautbois

"In our so-called post-modernist world it often seems that the future is past and the past is future. Case in point — Robert Baksa’s release on Capstone, which often sounds all the world out of another century. The program notes by Anthony Angarano make no bones about it: "Seldom experimental, Baksa has continually expressed his individuality through practiced craftsmanship and genuine melodic invention. By avoiding the trendy academic movements and passing musical fashions, he has maintained his creative integrity and emerged as one of America’s most original composers." Correct, aside from the hyperbole. Baksa’s "Quintet for Oboe and Strings" sounds much like Mozart, and is supposed to. "Inspired by Mozart’s models of chamber music for woodwinds and strings, Robert Baksa composed his "Oboe Quintet" according to the conventions of the classical style. Finding flexibility within the form, however, he has created a fresh, 20^th-century work. While replicating the linear clarity, sense of proportion and harmonic simplicity, he has imbued the idiom with a distinctive American flavor." While the composer appears on the CD photo in a sweater and sneakers, this is every inch tuxedo music, with very little that is 20^th-century American — a few turns of phrase, a tendency to blend classical with romantic and 20^th century idioms in its hints of Wagner and Stravinsky — aside from reflecting some of the 20^th-century American classical-music establishment’s love affair with the past in general and Mozart in Particular. Even the antecedent/consequent phrases of the third-movement "Allegretto" seem crafted from Wolfie’s "Oboe Concerto."

The Beethovian "12 Bagatelles" of the CD cover — actually "Six Bagatelles" (1974), "Three Bagatelles" (1975), and "Three Bagatelles" (1981) — occasionally have similar suggestions of a harmonic palette and rhythmic energy of later times, sometimes only of Chopin and Debussy, but at other times alluding to neoclassicism and light jazz. Unlike music of some composers, the later pieces are more adventurous: the first of the 1981 set a delightful spin on a turn…somewhat of a "Turkish march" parody. These works, as well as the "Overture for Clarinet," are all suitable for cocktail parties."

TurokÕs Choice - February 1992 - Issue No. 20 - by Paul Turok

"A charming oboe quintet by Robert Baksa has been reissued on cd, along with his highly engaging Bagatelles for piano (CPS-8610, analog). Excellent performances by various artists."