Bohuslav Martinů

Bohuslav Martinu

Bohuslav Martinů was a prolific Czech composer of modern classical music. He was of Czech and Rumanian ancestry. Martinů wrote six symphonies, 15 operas, 14 ballet scores and a large body of orchestral, chamber, vocal and instrumental works. Martinů became a violinist in the Czech Philharmonic...

's Concerto for Oboe and Small Orchestra, H. 353, was written in 1955 for the Czech

Czechoslovakia

Czechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...

-born Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

n oboist

Oboe

The oboe is a double reed musical instrument of the woodwind family. In English, prior to 1770, the instrument was called "hautbois" , "hoboy", or "French hoboy". The spelling "oboe" was adopted into English ca...

 Jiří Tancibudek

Jiří Tancibudek

Jiří Tancibudek AM was a Czech-born Australian oboist, conductor and teacher of great renown in his adopted country and elsewhere. His obituary in the Adelaide Review, titled "Prince of the oboe", said of his playing:-Biography:...

.

The work was commissioned by the Sydney

Sydney

Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...

 Daily Telegraph

The Daily Telegraph (Australia)

The Daily Telegraph is an Australian tabloid newspaper published in Sydney, New South Wales, by Nationwide News, part of News Corporation.The Tele, as it is also known, was founded in 1879. From 1936 to 1972, it was owned by Frank Packer's Australian Consolidated Press. That year it was sold to...

newspaper, in celebration of the 1956 Olympic Games

1956 Summer Olympics

The 1956 Melbourne Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XVI Olympiad, were an international multi-sport event which was held in Melbourne, Australia, in 1956, with the exception of the equestrian events, which could not be held in Australia due to quarantine regulations...

 in Melbourne

Melbourne

Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...

.

Jiří Tancibudek gave the world premiere in August 1956 in Sydney, with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra

Sydney Symphony Orchestra

The Sydney Symphony Orchestra , commonly known as the Sydney Symphony, is an Australian symphony orchestra based in Sydney...

 conducted by Hans Schmidt-Isserstedt

Hans Schmidt-Isserstedt

Hans Schmidt-Isserstedt was a German conductor and composer.-Early life:Born in Berlin, he studied music in Heidelberg and Münster. He was also a composition student with Franz Schreker at the Berlin Hochschule für Musik, and received a doctorate in 1923.-Career:He was a repetiteur at the...

.

Tancibudek also gave European premieres in London (27 February 1958 in the BBC Studio in Maida Vale), Hamburg (March 1958), and Vienna, and the New World premiere in Vancouver. He was also due to play the public British premiere at the Proms

The Proms

The Proms, more formally known as The BBC Proms, or The Henry Wood Promenade Concerts presented by the BBC, is an eight-week summer season of daily orchestral classical music concerts and other events held annually, predominantly in the Royal Albert Hall in London...

, but time constraints prevented this; instead, it was performed at the Proms on 24 August 1959, four days after the composer's death, by Tancibudek's friend Evelyn Rothwell

Evelyn Barbirolli

Evelyn, Lady Barbirolli OBE was an English oboist, and wife of the conductor Sir John Barbirolli.She was born Evelyn Rothwell, and was known professionally by that name until after she was widowed, when she became known as Evelyn Barbirolli...

, with her husband Sir John Barbirolli

John Barbirolli

Sir John Barbirolli, CH was an English conductor and cellist. Born in London, of Italian and French parentage, he grew up in a family of professional musicians. His father and grandfather were violinists...

 conducting. The Czech premiere took place in 1960, with František Hanták as the soloist.

Tancibudek was given permission from the composer to retain the manuscript of the concerto. Comparing this with the work published after Martinů's death, he noticed a considerable number of discrepancies. In the 1980s, he and James Brody at Indiana University published a list of corrections with some interpretational suggestions. He and Maurice Bourgue worked together on publication of the critical edition. Maurice Bourgue and Guy Porat produced a revised edition in 2008. This edition restores the second cadenza in the last movement (removed at Tancibudek’s suggestion), and corrects a number of errors in the solo part.

The three movements are marked:

• Moderato
• Poco andante
• Poco allegro.

The score reveals the influence of Igor Stravinsky

Igor Stravinsky

Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky ; 6 April 1971) was a Russian, later naturalized French, and then naturalized American composer, pianist, and conductor....

, including a quotation

Musical quotation

Musical quotation is the practice of directly quoting another work in a new composition. The quotation may be from the same composer's work , or from a different composer's work ....

 of a motif from Petrushka in the second movement.
The score contains a prominent part for an orchestral piano. It takes about 16 minutes to play.