Review: Unique Christmas concert by the Deutsche Kammerakademie Neuss

The Deutsche Kammerakademie Neuss am Rhein (DKN), under the brilliant direction of guest conductor, oboist Nicholas Daniel, chose for this Sunday a unique Christmas concert programmed especially for a time as difficult as the one we live in in Europe. Since 2004 Daniel has been professor of oboe at the prestigious Trossingen Conservatory and since 2021 the principal conductor of the renowned Orion Orchestra in London.

The ensemble performed the serene second movement (Adagio) of Bach’s Concerto for oboe, violin and strings (BWV 1060), very popular in Christmas concerts in these parts, which Nicholas Daniel played magnificently, and the DKN, which Daniel conducts from the oboe with fascinating poise and authority

The DKN performed Elena Langer’s Gluhwein Concerto for oboe, violin, strings and continuo (Meditation on the Adagio BWV 1060) which uses Bach’s music and its instrumentation, an opening oboe serenade, answered by the pizzicato violin, creating an ecstatic, almost religious atmosphere. Langer based the piece – dedicated to Nicholas Daniel and which he performed here for the first time – on her Second Movement for oboe, violin and string orchestra (2008, although written in 2006).

Nicholas Daniel shone again as soloist in Handel’s Concerto in G minor for oboe and strings (HWV 287), putting his instrument’s richness of colour and sound into the limelight. The concerto, opened by Daniel with a dreamy elegance, playing the intricate melodic lines exquisitely, with subtle expression and a mastery of the instrument that made you forget its technical difficulties.

Juan Carlos Tellechea, mundoclasico.com

Read this review in full (in Spanish) at mundoclasico.com