Bonjour Paris

Albrecht Mayer, principal oboe of the Berlin Philharmonic, celebrates a lifelong passion for France with this album of popular melodies, including favourites by Debussy, Fauré, and Ravel.

Over the years, the German oboist Albrecht Mayer has taken his instrument out of its orchestral niche and into the classical limelight. When he blows into the "noble wood", music turns to language - be it with complicated solo pieces or in the reworkings of familiar masterpieces. No one elicits such sensuous sounds from the instrument as the solo oboist from the Berliner Philharmoniker, and no one has explored the oboe repertoire more comprehensively than he.

"Mayer produces a velvety, ravishing sound of sensual purity. The authentic Gallic oboe tone is more nasal and plangent than Mayer's blemishless stream of eloquence, but when the results are so alluring I can't imagine anyone worrying unduly...Mayer sustains an astonishing level of musical poise, shaping every phrase to golden perfection." (Classic FM)