Arias & Oboe D'Amore
This release is basically a showcase for two outstanding Canadian specialists in baroque music--countertenor Daniel Taylor and oboist Bruce Haynes.  The centerpieces of the disc are Bach arias for alto with obbligato oboe d'amore (a slightly lower-pitched version of an oboe, rather like the modern English horn), including "Qui sedes" from the B Minor Mass and the eager "Saget, saget mir geschwinde" from the Easter Oratorio.  Also included are two cheerful, charming oboe concertos (actually transcriptions back from harpsichord concertos that evidently originated as works for a melody instrument such as oboe or violin).  Taylor definitely has a light lyric voice--he isn't at his best as, say, the castrato hero in a Handel opera such asRodelinda, but he's delightful in Bach's sacred works (as he is inPurcell).  Haynes has been a widely admired baroque oboist and scholar since the early 1970s; his performance here shows why.  It's a pity that, rather than arias excerpted from cantatas or oratorios, they couldn't have chosen one of the full cantatas for solo alto.  (Perhaps they'll do so on a future disc.)  The "bleeding chunks" problem aside, this is an exquisite record.--Matthew Westphal