Interview: Laura Ahlbeck

Laura Ahlbeck (bio) will be the oboe soloist in Penderecki’s Capriccio at the COB’s April 25 concert. David Feltner took some time after a recent rehearsal to ask her some questions about the piece.

David Feltner: So, tell me your impressions of this music…

Laura Ahlbeck: Well, although it’s a short piece, only about 6 or 7 minutes, it is definitely one of the most difficult pieces I’ve ever done.

Wow, coming from an oboist who played at the Met for years and plays regularly with American Symphony Orchestra and BSO, that’s quite a statement. What makes it so hard?

For one thing, he uses a lot of unusual techniques, such as flutter tongue. Unlike the flute, you can’t flutter in the front, because the reed is in the way. So you have to do it further back in your mouth. Most oboists can’t do it I’ve been working on it since September. Also, he writes a lot of glissandos, which are especially difficult on an oboe without holes in the keys.

So a lot of unusual sounds must be the result?

When I first started practicing it, my son stood at the top of basement stairs and called down in a worried voice: “Mom, are you alright down there?” I’ve made an agreement with my two kids that I won’t practice it while they’re doing their homework.

How did you first learn about the piece?

It was from a recording called ” The Artistry of Heinz Holliger.” Holliger is perhaps the most famous and most recorded oboist around. This piece was written for him. He plays this stuff better than anybody.

Have you ever heard him perform live?

Yes, I saw him once on the concert series at the Metropolitan Museum of Art  in New York. He was playing a work with multiphonics …

Think “migration season”?

Yes, and he was really going at it savagely and his comb-over came undone and was hanging on the other side of his head. I started laughing, then tried really hard not to laugh and started shaking and then the guy on my right started shaking, too. The man on my left was NOT amused-this was serious music!

But it sounds like it was a valid response to what was going on…

Yes! And you know who are the best at giving honest immediate feedback? Kids.

Yes, “Kids say the darnedest things…”

I was recently invited to private school in Houston to do an oboe demonstration. They allotted me 17 and 1/2 minutes -which gives you some idea how strict and proper they were. It was Dress Up day, and in filed all these first graders dressed as cowboys and cowgirls. And they sat there, neat and tidy with their hands folded, as I played Bach and Telemann and Mozart and Schumann. But when I played this piece, the kids went berserk! They just loved it!

I bet our audience Saturday night will, too!

The Chamber Orchestra of Boston presents Full Circle Saturday, April 25 at 8 p.m. at First Church in Boston.