Zelenka's six sonatas for two oboes, bassoon and continuo are among the most rewarding and at times most difficult pieces of baroque chamber music in the oboe repertory. Twenty years ago Heinz Holliger, Maurice Bourgue and Klaus Thunemann made a fine recording of them for Archiv. Those performances on modern instruments were followed by two other recordings during the 1980s, Burkhard Glaetzner, Ingo Goritzki and Knut Sonstevold, also playing modern instruments (Capriccio) and Paul Dombrecht, Marcel Ponseele and Danny Bond playing period instruments (Accent). All these, in their different ways were accomplished and enjoyable. But for sheer elan and spirit the baroque instrumental players on the new disc take some beating. The present recital contains only three of the six sonatas, and another volume, completing the set, is on its way. Meanwhile, this new release from Astree Auvidis is well worth acquiring. The members of Ensemble Zefiro may be known to assiduous Gramophone readers in other contexts—the bassoonist Alberto Grazzi, for instance, currently plays with The English Concert.
Zelenka's writing is sometimes highly idiosyncratic but seldom fails to engage the interest of a listener. He wrote these pieces in Vienna in about 1715 when he was in his late thirties. Technically, the writing is advanced and, as I have implied, full of character. Some of the passagework is incredibly exacting as you will quickly find out if you either sit down to listen to, or even more, to play the Allegro finale of the Sixth Sonata. Indeed, pieces demanding such virtuosity from these instruments were probably without precedent at the time. We can only speculate as to the circumstances which led to their composition but the writing is often such as to make us wonder if they were destined for friends or enemies of the composer.
Here, then, is splendidly invigorating playing of music which offers a great deal beyond face value. The sounds of the solo instruments themselves, together with an effective continuo group of double-bass, harpsichord/organ and theorbo are admirably captured in the recording.'