Post by David on Dec 16, 2008 17:30:58 GMT 1
Arthur Jensen, professor of oboe at the Mozarteum, was quoted as having said that -
“Lothar Koch is one of the greatest musical personalities of our time. He is probably one of the greatest instrumentalists of the last 150 years.”
I know that there are many who would at the very least concur with this view.
Following Lothar Koch’s death in tragic circumstances in March 2003, the International Double Reed Society published an obituary/memorial tribute. The reference to Koch is on the second of the two pages on the IDRS link -
www.idrs.org/publications/dr/pubidrs2/dr26.3/47.pdf
I can’t really add anything further, but would just wish to reiterate the following from the narrative -
“In 1957, Lothar Koch won the audition for solo oboist in the Berlin Philharmonic. Under Herbert von Karajan (1908-89) an era of oboe highlights began. His playing, always of the utmost precision, his singing, glowing tone, smooth and always expressive, became a trademark and unchanging legendary hallmark of the Berlin Philharmonic.”
In Karajan’s BPO recordings are numerous examples of Koch’s art to savour. I have recently listened to the 1966 DG Missa Solemnis. The lead-in to the Dona nobis pacem is simply exquisite.
In November 1969 the Philharmonic Soloists visited Stonyhurst College in Lancashire which is only three miles from where I lived at the time. The event was fairly informal so that after the performance I was fortunate to have been able to obtain Lothar Koch's autograph and also exchange a sentence. I said that I had attended the London concerts five months previously to which he replied, somewhat ruefully, that he had played only second oboe in the first Brandenburg. I had remembered this and that it was Karl Steins, the co-principal, who had played first oboe in this work. This fact may be of interest even today in view of the recent CD release of the famous 29 May 1969 Moscow/Shostakovich concert where the first Brandenburg was also on the programme. The London concert had occurred only eight days later and so it is almost certain that on the Moscow CD you will be hearing Steins as first oboe and Koch as second in the first Brandenburg.
Finally I would just mention an extract from a review of the final concert of the 1964 London Brahms cycle which I was fortunate to have attended, this being the third of forty Karajan concerts I eventually attended. Richard Osborne in A Life of Music recalls the 1964 concert and the review by William Mann, the Times music critic -
“Unhappy the vainglorious soloist who plays Brahms’s Violin Concerto with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, for the solo oboe-playing in this orchestra attains a standard of artistry that is almost bound to make the melody of the Adagio the musical high point of the work…….”.
Lothar Koch - RIP
“Lothar Koch is one of the greatest musical personalities of our time. He is probably one of the greatest instrumentalists of the last 150 years.”
I know that there are many who would at the very least concur with this view.
Following Lothar Koch’s death in tragic circumstances in March 2003, the International Double Reed Society published an obituary/memorial tribute. The reference to Koch is on the second of the two pages on the IDRS link -
www.idrs.org/publications/dr/pubidrs2/dr26.3/47.pdf
I can’t really add anything further, but would just wish to reiterate the following from the narrative -
“In 1957, Lothar Koch won the audition for solo oboist in the Berlin Philharmonic. Under Herbert von Karajan (1908-89) an era of oboe highlights began. His playing, always of the utmost precision, his singing, glowing tone, smooth and always expressive, became a trademark and unchanging legendary hallmark of the Berlin Philharmonic.”
In Karajan’s BPO recordings are numerous examples of Koch’s art to savour. I have recently listened to the 1966 DG Missa Solemnis. The lead-in to the Dona nobis pacem is simply exquisite.
In November 1969 the Philharmonic Soloists visited Stonyhurst College in Lancashire which is only three miles from where I lived at the time. The event was fairly informal so that after the performance I was fortunate to have been able to obtain Lothar Koch's autograph and also exchange a sentence. I said that I had attended the London concerts five months previously to which he replied, somewhat ruefully, that he had played only second oboe in the first Brandenburg. I had remembered this and that it was Karl Steins, the co-principal, who had played first oboe in this work. This fact may be of interest even today in view of the recent CD release of the famous 29 May 1969 Moscow/Shostakovich concert where the first Brandenburg was also on the programme. The London concert had occurred only eight days later and so it is almost certain that on the Moscow CD you will be hearing Steins as first oboe and Koch as second in the first Brandenburg.
Finally I would just mention an extract from a review of the final concert of the 1964 London Brahms cycle which I was fortunate to have attended, this being the third of forty Karajan concerts I eventually attended. Richard Osborne in A Life of Music recalls the 1964 concert and the review by William Mann, the Times music critic -
“Unhappy the vainglorious soloist who plays Brahms’s Violin Concerto with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, for the solo oboe-playing in this orchestra attains a standard of artistry that is almost bound to make the melody of the Adagio the musical high point of the work…….”.
Lothar Koch - RIP
