Music / “Letter From Home”, oboe quartet concert. At Wesley Music Centre, May 20
Reviewed by GRAHAM McDONALD.

THERE isn’t much music written for an oboe quartet – oboe, violin, viola and cello – but it was interesting to see the range of music presented in a most enjoyable concert in the intimate surroundings of the Wesley Music Centre on a cold and blustery Saturday afternoon.

Led by Ennes Mehmedbasic who has studied as a mathematician at Sydney University and as an oboist at the Australian National Academy of Music, along with violinist John Ma, violist Lucy Carrigny-Ryan and Lian Meany on cello. This is a highly competent quartet playing music from JS Bach to Pat Metheny with an intriguing work “Ithmus” composed by Mehmedbasic for this group of instruments included in the program.

The program opened with an arrangement of a tune, “Letter From Home”, by jazz guitarist Pat
Metheny before an arrangement of one of the “Rhapsodies”, Op 79 by Johannes Brahms,
originally written for piano and reworked for the quartet.

John Ma left the stage for the next work, the slow movement of the JS Bach Trio Sonata in C. This started a little ragged but tightened up well and Mehmedbasic looked quite relieved at the end of several minutes of solid playing.

The second half of the program started with an Allegro moderato movement from Scenes
Villageoises, Op 86 by the French Romantic composer Rene de Boisdeffre. This is a pleasant and
descriptive piece of music suggesting a French village originally written for oboe and piano, with
the piano part comfortably translating to the strings. This was followed by Mehmedbasic’s
composition “Ithmus” before ending with WA Mozart’s charming “Oboe Quartet” in F, K370. This
brought a big smile to violinists John Ma’s face as they romped through the opening movement
and was a most satisfying finish to an understated but very well played concert.