Oboist Robert Stephenson to play rare solos with orchestra, concert

Oboists seldom have the opportunity to bask in the soloist's spotlight — mainly because there aren't that many concertos for oboe.

There are a number of chamber works that include the oboe, but the instrument's home is the orchestra, where it's been a staple since the early 18th century.

This coming week, however, Robert Stephenson will be leaving his chair as the Utah Symphony's principal oboist, a position he's held since 1980, for two concerts.

First off, he'll play the Carl Nielsen Wind Quintet in A major, op. 43, at Monday's Intermezzo Chamber Music Series concert. Two days later, he'll solo in Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Concerto in C major, K. 314, with the Utah Symphony Chamber Orchestra at the Deer Valley Music Festival.

Nielsen's quintet is a work that not many in the audience at Monday's concert will have heard. Nor do many musicians know the piece. However, Stephenson knows it and has played it previously.

"But that was a long time ago, back in college," he said.

Stephenson considers the quintet "a real classic" and said he's looking forward to playing it again.

"Thanks to Ron Beitel (Utah Symphony horn player), we're doing it."

The Mozart concerto, on the other hand, is a work that almost everyone knows.

"I've played it with the orchestra before, and I'm happy to be doing it again," he said.

For this performance, Stephenson has written three cadenzas, one for each movement. "It was a challenge, but it was a lot of fun, too."

To help him prepare, Stephenson studied the few cadenzas that Mozart wrote for some of his piano concertos. "He didn't write out many cadenzas, but I went through the ones he did and I ended up stealing some things from them. My cadenzas might remind people of some of those works. But I also tried to make them sound a little bit like the 21st century."

A problem for a wind player who doesn't do a lot of solo work is stamina.

"You have to be able to endure the length of the concerto, and that can be tiring. You have to go into training," Stephenson said.

Orchestral wind and brass players have a lot of rests in any work from the symphonic repertoire. That's not the case with a concerto.

"You're almost always on," he said.