Work for Oboe Violin Viola and Cello. Parts available: CH56341.This quartet was commissioned by the Institute of Contemporary Arts and written in the autumn of 1967. It is dedicated to Lady Norton and is the second of LennoxBerkeley’s three works written with the oboist the late Janet Craxton in mind the other two being his Sonatina OP 61 and Sinfonia Concertante OP 84.The work begins with a fairly extended introduction leading without a breakinto an Allegro. The whole composition is based on the internal of a third (sometime major sometimes minor) which is heard in the opening phrase of the introduction and again in the main theme of the Allegro though here in atotally different context. The allegro is in more or less traditional sonata form. The middle movement is a kind of Scherzo growing out of a rhythmical figure for the strings and a rapid arpeggio (major and minor chords) forthe oboe. This is a Presto; a more relaxed middle section corresponding to the Trio in a classical work is followed by a much shortened version of the Scherzo. The last movement is brief but very slow all four instrumentstaking up in turn a gently rocking figure that moves to and fro between two notes always a major or minor third apart. The music becomes more animated but returns to the opening figure and dies away each instrument droppingout one after the other leaving the cello alone in the last bar.

Internationally renowned oboe soloist and orchestral musician John Winstead plays the demo tracks for this book/2-CD pack which includes 14 classical favorites: Larghetto from Cimarosa's Oboe Concerto in C Minor · Allegro from Telemann's Fantasia III · Allegro Guisto Grave and Allegro from Vivaldi's Concerto in F Major · Pan Phaeton Niobe Bacchus Narcissus and Arethusa from Britten's The Six Metamorphoses After Ovid · and Stehe Still Im Treibhaus and Träume from Wagner's Wesendonch Lieder Suite.