The case for a Channel tunnel (or something) to speed contact with the world beyond these shores receives reinforcement from the discovery that it has taken 18 years for this record to make its snail-like trek all the way from Paris. This means that the present recording of the Poulenc Sonata antedates by some five years Bourgue's 1973 EMI version (EMSP553, 3/76—part of a two-record set): that was, however, nuanced with more finesse, and in Jacques Fevrier had a much more sensitive, less heavy-handed partner than Colette Kling, whose playing is particularly overweight in the Scherzo. It also capture the true elegiac quality of the first movement (as did the excellent Ronald Roseman on Nonesuch, who took a slower tempo), whereas this one sounds all but jaunty. Bourgue's prowess as a virtuoso can be heard in the Britten Metamorphoses, which are technically more accomplished than in either of the alternatives listed above (and are considerably more characterful than Canter's on Phoenix): his rapid articulation calls for admiration, but he takes the pieces very freely indeed, and they are not entirely free from slight errors in notes (as in the final rundown in ''Pan'').
The record is of most value, however, for the two other sonatas, which fill a gap in the catalogue. It is 30 years since the last recording of the Hindemith, a work from the same year as his beautiful Nobilissima visione. It is curiously shaped, the second of its two movements alternating back and forth between hieratically slow and lively, with a lot of cross-rhythm similar to that which characterizes the wry perkiness of the first movement. The brittle texture is deftly and cleanly handled by the duo, who bring great buoyancy to this performance. Even better is the Dutilleux Sonata, a staple of the oboe repertoire of which no previous recording seems to exist. Owing something in style to Roussel (not Ravel or Faure, mentioned by the writer of the empty sleeve-note, who seems not to have heard any of the works on this record), it is a closely-argued work, with a splendidly pungent Scherzo, but whose finale does not quite live up to the promise of the preceding movements. This is a most engaging performance: Bourgue spins fine long lines and shows much tonal subtlety in the canonic Aria, and both players are suitably mordant in the Scherzo. The recording arouses not the smallest suspicion of its age.'