Described by the New Grove Dictionary of Music as “one of America’s most renowned oboists,” Humbert Lucarelli has died. In addition to his excellence as a performer, he was a noted teacher. In the latter regard, among other things, he was Professor of Oboe at the Hartt School of Music in West Hartford, Connecticut, a position he held since 1968.
Lucarelli performed and recorded widely throughout his distinguished career, working with musicians such as Leonard Bernstein, Arthur Fiedler, Kirill Kondrashin, Jean Martinon, George Pretre, Fritz Reiner, Robert Shaw, Sir Georg Solti, Leopold Stokowski, and Igor Stravinsky. He commissioned and gave first performances of many new works, including the Oboe Concerto of John Corigliano.
Those of you in the Lehigh Valley might be interested to know that in 1990 Lucarelli recorded a memorable album with the Lehigh Valley Chamber Orchestra for Koch International Classics. The program includes lovely renditions of Samuel Barber’s “Canzonetta,” Richard Strauss’ Oboe Concerto, Ermanno Wolf Ferrari’s “Idillio-Concertino,” and Ralph Vaughan Williams’ Oboe Concerto. I’ve included it in my on-air playlists often, especially the Barber and the Wolf-Ferrari works, which are still comparatively and puzzlingly “unknown.”
Lucarelli died on August 10 at the age of 87.
R.I.P.
Bach, Sinfonia from the “Easter Oratorio”
Barber, Canzonetta from his unfinished Oboe Concerto
Wayne Barlow, “The Winter’s Past”