Fantasia sull'opera "Les Hugenots" di Meyerbeer - OB/PN

During the 19th century, fantasias on tunes from well-known operas became very popular. Indeed, once French composer, Abraham was said to have been able to write on demand a fantasia on any opera. FJ Fetis described him as "a sort of craftsman-musician in the pay of the music merchants". As a result, we have inherited a large number of pieces based on the most famous operas of the last century, and they are slowly being rediscovered. Some of these arrangements were intended for amateur players, and the technical demands of these could not be too high. In the case of the fantasias for oboe, we rarely find easy works, and the compositions of Garimond, De Stefani, Parma, Barret, Fargues, etc seem to pave the way for those of the two virtuosos Theodore Lalliet (1837-1892) and Antonio Pasculli (1842-1924) in whose works new heights of technical difficulty were reached. 

The present compositions of Pasculli is very complex and combines some of the best known themes from Meyerbeer's opera with high technical demands, requiring both expression and virtuosity. It is important to point out that the cadenza of the central episode has a section resembling part of Pasculli's Concerto sopra motivi dell'opera "La Favorita". The work was dedicated to Stefano Donaudy. 

Edited by Sandro Caldini