Collage

A distinct, varied, and contrast-rich program, excellently balanced, highly musical, and inspired by the egalitarian and "listening" dialogue of the voices. Founded in 2024, the ensemble Ars ad Mundum expands the repertoire for oboe and string trio with its debut album and surprises with a broad tonal palette. "Collage" presents two original compositions for this rare instrumentation as well as two fascinating arrangements for oboe quartet and a duo for oboe and violin as world premiere recordings.

In addition to the genre's showpiece, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s genre- and style-defining Quartet in F major, K. 370, which places extreme demands on the oboist's virtuosity, the four musicians have recorded Benjamin Britten’s "Phantasy Quartet" for oboe and three strings, in which the voices blend into shimmering sound textures. Robert Schumann’s "Three Romances for Oboe (Violin) and Piano, op. 94," a high point of romantic oboe literature, gains immense dynamism in Hans-Peter Frank’s arrangement for oboe and three strings. On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the Georgian composer Sulkhan Tsintsadze in 2025, Ars ad Mundum presents his famous "Miniatures for String Quartet" in an arrangement by Giorgi Kalandarishvili as a world premiere recording. Compared to the string quartet version, the use of the oboe enhances the expressivity of the music, which in the four voices is reminiscent of Georgian folk instruments and singing. Another world premiere recording is Anatol Stefan Riemer’s (* 1970) "Alpensplitter" (2014), which uses motifs from the Alpine Symphony, op. 64, by R. Strauss. In this duo for oboe/English horn and violin, the Frankfurt-based composer condenses the monumental score of the "Alpine Symphony" into a central, evocative musical image of a mountain ascent. In addition to traditional playing techniques, new ones such as tapping with the wood of the bow, air sounds, and multiphonics on the oboe are also employed.