Uploaded November 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana with HansJörg Schellenberger as both oboist and conductor.
I - Ziemlich lebhaft - Ruhig und sehr ausdrucksvoll - Lebhaft: 0:00
Klughardt's Oboe concert piece (Konzerstuck) was composed circa 1870, while he was working as conductor at the court theatre in Weimar. It's premiere date and performers involved are currently unknown, its earliest performance was in a concert of the Royal Music School of Würzburg conducted by Carl Reinecke. Five years later it was played in Dresden on June 28 of 1886. Already by then, the piece was being included into standard conservatory exams or jury series. Just as Klughardt's demanding Woodwind Quintet Op. 79 is still considered an excellent piece for pedagogical purposes, many considered the Konzertstück especially suitable for teaching and learning purposes.
Rudolf Hiebendahl, one of the greatest oboists of the XIX century, wrote the following note in 1886 for Klughardt: "Warmest greetings and many thanks to you from an old oboe-father for the wonderful composition. Finally, our oboe repertoire, which in general is rather trivial and slim, has been greatly enriched." Further on, he noted that the composition has "not only been positively recognized by the local press but as well by the world of music in general." Gunther Joppig, a well-respected expert of oboe literature, sees in Klughardt’s piece a "light and highly effective work of the romantic era for oboe." The relatively small quantity of oboe literature makes the piece a particularly worthwhile addition to the repertoire, though its origins are not well documented. Even Klughardt’s biographer, Leopold Gerlach, does not mention the piece at all.
The recognition and use of the oboe had greatly changed during the XIX century. Eduard Hanslick stated in 1866: "The time in which this type of artist [oboists] used to travel and appear in great numbers by performing concerts on their boring single tubes has passed." Within the context of the romantic orchestra, the oboe was assigned a great variety of responsibilities and functions, but the overall position of the oboe in the concerto repertoire remained somewhat weak. Pieces for oboe and orchestra were rather rare at the end of the XIX century. Often, people would associate the sound of the oboe with country and peasant-like images. Klughardt’s concert piece, however, is pleasantly different from this stereotype.
The piece is structured in ternary form. It begins with an animated orchestral introduction, before the oboe soloist exposes a melodic and cantabile main theme in F major in a virtuoso way. According to Christopher Fifield, is the only way for the oboe to clearly shine through the thick orchestral writing. After an orchestral march-like transition, the second theme is introduced by the soloist. Other motives and ideas are also present, offering some contrast. Orchestra and soloist share an equal role, it is the oboist who introduces the material first for the most part. A brief oboe solo recitative leads to the next part. The central section features a widely lyrical theme on oboe, which unfold with romantic expression over string accompaniment. The third section is a broad recapitulation of the first, lively and cheerful in tone, capped by a cadenza-like passage for the soloist. A short but resolute coda in F major ends the concert piece.
Picture: "View of Mondsee with the Schafberg mountain" (1869) by the German painter Stanislaus von Kalckreuth.
Musical analysis partially written by myself. Source: tinyurl.com/247f5lx3
To check the score: tinyurl.com/29jxs4tu
Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana with HansJörg Schellenberger as both oboist and conductor.
I - Ziemlich lebhaft - Ruhig und sehr ausdrucksvoll - Lebhaft: 0:00
Klughardt's Oboe concert piece (Konzerstuck) was composed circa 1870, while he was working as conductor at the court theatre in Weimar. It's premiere date and performers involved are currently unknown, its earliest performance was in a concert of the Royal Music School of Würzburg conducted by Carl Reinecke. Five years later it was played in Dresden on June 28 of 1886. Already by then, the piece was being included into standard conservatory exams or jury series. Just as Klughardt's demanding Woodwind Quintet Op. 79 is still considered an excellent piece for pedagogical purposes, many considered the Konzertstück especially suitable for teaching and learning purposes.
Rudolf Hiebendahl, one of the greatest oboists of the XIX century, wrote the following note in 1886 for Klughardt: "Warmest greetings and many thanks to you from an old oboe-father for the wonderful composition. Finally, our oboe repertoire, which in general is rather trivial and slim, has been greatly enriched." Further on, he noted that the composition has "not only been positively recognized by the local press but as well by the world of music in general." Gunther Joppig, a well-respected expert of oboe literature, sees in Klughardt’s piece a "light and highly effective work of the romantic era for oboe." The relatively small quantity of oboe literature makes the piece a particularly worthwhile addition to the repertoire, though its origins are not well documented. Even Klughardt’s biographer, Leopold Gerlach, does not mention the piece at all.
The recognition and use of the oboe had greatly changed during the XIX century. Eduard Hanslick stated in 1866: "The time in which this type of artist [oboists] used to travel and appear in great numbers by performing concerts on their boring single tubes has passed." Within the context of the romantic orchestra, the oboe was assigned a great variety of responsibilities and functions, but the overall position of the oboe in the concerto repertoire remained somewhat weak. Pieces for oboe and orchestra were rather rare at the end of the XIX century. Often, people would associate the sound of the oboe with country and peasant-like images. Klughardt’s concert piece, however, is pleasantly different from this stereotype.
The piece is structured in ternary form. It begins with an animated orchestral introduction, before the oboe soloist exposes a melodic and cantabile main theme in F major in a virtuoso way. According to Christopher Fifield, is the only way for the oboe to clearly shine through the thick orchestral writing. After an orchestral march-like transition, the second theme is introduced by the soloist. Other motives and ideas are also present, offering some contrast. Orchestra and soloist share an equal role, it is the oboist who introduces the material first for the most part. A brief oboe solo recitative leads to the next part. The central section features a widely lyrical theme on oboe, which unfold with romantic expression over string accompaniment. The third section is a broad recapitulation of the first, lively and cheerful in tone, capped by a cadenza-like passage for the soloist. A short but resolute coda in F major ends the concert piece.
Picture: "View of Mondsee with the Schafberg mountain" (1869) by the German painter Stanislaus von Kalckreuth.
Musical analysis partially written by myself. Source: tinyurl.com/247f5lx3
To check the score: tinyurl.com/29jxs4tu
