The Bassoonist's Corner

The Bassoonists Corner

Bassoon recordings of note

When teaching an instrument that is infrequently heard, it is important that the student have a concept of the fully developed sound of a master. Thanks to the development of iTunes, these recording are easily available to an aspiring bassoonist and should be frequently studied as a point of reference for both sound and style.

Recently there have been a spate of bassoon recordings that I can highly recommend.
The generation that is currently approaching retirement age, of which Milan Turkovic & Klaus Thunemann are two leading examples, have been followed by a new generation of very talented bassoonists.

Of the old guard, one of the most prolific in terms of recordings is the Austrian bassoonist Milan Turkovic, formerly Principal Bassoonist of the Vienna Symphony before becoming professor of Bassoon at the Musikhochschule in Vienna. Currently, iTunes lists 54 tracks featuring Milan. He is a consummate artist and I’d recommend anything he has recorded, but if I had to pick one it would be his recording of the Weber Bassoon Concerto in F with Neville Marriner and the Stuttgart Radio Symphony:

http://tinyurl.com/2fq9b39

Klaus Thuneman, from Germany, is also well represented on iTunes, and again I’d recommend any of them. If I had to pick one it would be his recording of the Hummel Bassoon concerto with Neville Marriner and the Academy of St. Martins in the Fields. Mr Thunemann was Principal Bassoonist with the North German Radio Symphony Orchestra before concentrating on his solo and teaching career.

http://tinyurl.com/2fq9b39

The newer generation of bassoonists includes Dag Jensen, Sergio Anzulizzi, Keren Geogahn, Ben Kamins, & Christopher Millard.

The Norwegian bassoonist Dag Jensen is currently Professor at the Hanover Academy of Music and Theatre. He has served as Principal Bassoonist with the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra, the Cologne Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Saito Kinen Festival Orchestra and the Luzern Festival Orchestra. He has a wonderful recording of the Jolivet Concerto with Werner Andreas Albert and the Cologne Radio Orchestra, as well as many other recordings:

http://tinyurl.com/25hm5tr

The Italian Bassoonist Sergio Azzolini, a student of Klaus Thunemann, currently teaches bassoon at the Basle State Academy of Music. Among his many recordings, perhaps the most interesting is his version of the recently discovered Rossini Bassoon Concerto:

http://tinyurl.com/2u6nn5z

The young Scottish bassoonist Karen Geoghegan made her mark when she was a finalist on the 2007 BBC Two reality show, Classical Star and given a three-record recording contract by Chandos records at the age of 19! All three albums are available on iTunes, my favorite is her first one which includes a particularly lyrical version of Gershwin’s ‘Summertime’:

http://tinyurl.com/28q4fd7

American Bassoonist Ben Kamins, formerly the Principal Bassoonist with the Houston Symphony and now the professor of bassoon at Rice University, has a wonderful album of French Masterworks:

http://tinyurl.com/2afkc5b

Christopher Millard, formerly Principal Bassoonist with the Vancouver Symphony and currently Principal Bassoonist with the National Center for the Arts Orchestra in Ottawa, Canada, has an excellent recording of Italian Concerto with the BBC Vancouver Symphony:

http://tinyurl.com/3yeay59

Side note: Speaking of the iTunes store, there now a very handy iPhone app that has bassoon fingerings! At $.99 it’s a real steal. (There’s a similar one for Oboe as well.)

http://tinyurl.com/2dnvppk