Morceau de Salon, Op.228 (c 1858)

Great things were expected of Kalliwoda in the early part of his career, after he had left his native Prague and settled in Donaueschingen, where he was to conduct the court orchestra and generally run the musical life of the place for more than thirty years. He fulfilled expectations at least in terms of creativity, writing hundreds of works in all genres including seven symphonies, at least as many concertos and eighteen concert overture - of which last Robert Schumann observed that they were all pleasant, simple, undistinguished and exactly alike. In other words, as with so many over-prolific composers, his inspiration was thinly spread and eked out by resort to familiar procedures and professional routine.

The Morceau de Salon for oboe and piano, however, is very much better than its modest title suggests. It is not only superbly well written for the oboe - an instrument he obviously understood while taking a delight in pushing it as far as the technique of the instrumentalists of the day could take it - but also soundly and even spontaneously constructed. It is cast in one movement in ternary form, the reprise not unpredictably turning the modality away from the G minor opening to a G major ending with a hyper-active coda that scarcely give the oboist chance to breathe. The spontaneity is in the middle section, where the mood ranges between gracious lyricism, briefly fiery fervour and reckless virtuoso brilliance.