“The four pieces collected on this CD are in some ways obviously disparate and perhaps more closely connected than is immediately apparent”, comments Margaret Gay, artistic director of the Gallery Players of Niagara. Three of the works, Michael Oesterle’s Sunspot Letters, James Rolfe’s Oboe Quartet and Peter Hatch’s Wiki Mozart, all composed in 2006, were commissioned by the Gallery Players in celebration of the 250th anniversary of Mozart’s birth. “Our request to the composers was to revisit and respond as literally or as figuratively as they chose to Mozart’s Oboe Quartet in F Major K.370. John Abram’s Oboe Quartet, composed in 2002 for the same group of players, is a revisiting of an earlier piece of his own composition. The results of these collaborations have been enormously gratifying to the Gallery Players and our audiences”, adds Ms. Gay.

JAMES ROLFE

1-2. Oboe Quartet

MICHAEL OESTERLE

3. Sunspot Letters

JOHN ABRAM

4-5. Oboe Quartet

PETER HATCH

6. Wiki Mozart