Basil Reeve — oboe

I joined the Musical Offering in 1972, when the group was smaller. It was a great opportunity to play solo and chamber works outside of my duties in the Minnesota Orchestra.

Chamber music itself is an opportunity to master your own favorite music. It's a cooperative venture rather than playing under a director’s baton. There's a give and take of ideas. You try different things. No one person is dictating. In short, it's a more creative, inventive, expressive experience.

Sometimes, differences of opinion don’t get ironed out. But eventually someone will give in, or at least you'll decide to play the piece one way one time, another way the next time.

Generally, these things are ironed out by mutual consent. There are voting parties of course, and in a group of five — or nine, like the Offering — a majority will be found. The first chamber music groups to go under, not stay together long term, are string quartets because there is an even number of players. Long-standing string quartets are a rarity, no matter how much idealism they start with. That extra vote does count.

My own chamber music tastes are eclectic and run the course from the Baroque through the Classical, Romantic, Modern and Post-Modern periods.

For example, one recent season, the Copeland sextet was the smash hit (clarinet, string quartet, and piano), and sometime in the late '90s it was the Previn trio. These pieces exhibit the vibrancy and aliveness of great classic American music. And they're wonderful pieces for audience development, participation, appreciation. Though we can't always predict which will be the smash hits, they prove when they come along that audiences will listen to modern music if it’s good modern music.

I believe in bringing the audience along slowly, as with the Copeland and Previn pieces: if the audience has something to grasp, it will  come back and open up its ears a little bit more to something a bit more challenging. To those who aren't used to the classical idiom, I say: listen, listen, listen. There is so much variation in classical music that if you put aside any prejudices you might have, you will find things you like and a new world will open to you.  

Classical music is not for everyone, of course. But it would be good to give everyone the opportunity to see if it is for them or not. We should all keep open ears and listen. Even the warhorses, the standard repertory, were revolutionary and astonishing pieces when they were new. And audiences then greeted them with the same bewilderment and rage that older people heap on young people’s pop music today.

I’ve been responsible for the programming for the Offering for a long time, and I try for as broad a reach as possible in the repertoire. But we have tried, recently, to get away from all-one--period concerts like the Baroque. 

I am very happy about the upcoming season. (After all, I created the programs.) We will be playing a concert of English music that doesn't receive many hearings but that is extremely accessible, pastoral-school pieces plus Benjamin Britten's First String Quartet as the real kicker; also, this concert will feature some standard repertoire that we haven't done for a while but that our audiences have always loved.  And we'll have one concert that's half Baroque, half Schubert.

I’ve been playing oboe for a long time, so many of the pieces we play I’ve done before. When a challenging new piece comes along, I just sit down, and take the time to learn it. Every piece requires a different kind of attention. We do rehearse thoroughly, as a well-rehearsed piece gets a better reception.

Because of its instrumental make-up, the Offering can offer varied, all-inclusive combinations of chamber music. Also, because of Rees Allison's proficiency on the harpsichord as well as the piano, we can give authentic interpretations of Baroque music.

Very few pieces use all nine players in the Offering, but Rees with the harpsichord as well as the piano enables us to venture bravely into the Baroque. The numbers and combinations of pieces we can play are really very inclusive, from the Baroque to the modern, and we’re not loathe to spend some money to hire outsiders to augment the ensemble when we need to. For example, we recently gave a wonderful Handel program including vocalist Carolyn Pratt, which was very successful.

Having been in the Musical Offering for 30 years, I have seen the ensemble grow and improve artistically by leaps and bounds. The addition of our latest group of young recruits has brought us to an even higher level.  We've been playing with a core group of older players for long periods, and are committed to the series as a part of our musical life for the whole year. Plus, we have wonderful new people coming in. We are equal, sharing partners. The enthusiasm of the younger players is infectious, and I for one play off it.