Oboist

Malcolm Messiter

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Born in 1949, he began playing the oboe in 1964 while at Bryanston, Dorset. In 1965 he decided not to become a doctor after all, but a musician.In 1967 he won a scholarship to the Paris Conservatoire of Music where he studied with Pierre Pierlôt. Two years later he returned to the Royal College of Music in London to continue his studies with Sydney Sutcliffe. While at the R.C.M., he won among other prizes the Joy Boughton Prize, the Grade 5 Prize, and the R.A.O.S. prize, and a Performers' A.R.C.M. with Honours.

As soloist, Malcolm Messiter has recorded for R.C.A., Deutsche Grammophon, B.M.G., A.S.V., Hyperion, Arte Nova Classics, the B.B.C., and a great many British and foreign radio and TV stations. He has played as soloist in more than 51 countries (so far), including: U.K., Ireland, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Belgium, Hungary, Namibia, Jamaica, Poland, Bulgaria, Turkey, Greece, Cyprus, Israel, Norway, India, Sri Lanka, Korea, Hong Kong, Philippines, Taiwan, Switzerland, South Africa, Austria, Channel Islands, Liechtenstein, Netherlands, Canada, U.S.A., Panama, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, Costa Rica, Columbia, Ecuador, Peru, Chile, Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, Cuba, Barbados, United Arab Emirates, Mauritius, Croatia, Bolivia, Paraguay and Zimbabwe.

On leaving the Royal College of Music in 1972, he joined the BBC Concert Orchestra as principal oboe. In 1977 he left the BBC to become principal oboe in the London Mozart Players. He was Equal Winner of the 1978 Leeds International Musicians' Platform. After a few years in the London Mozart Players, he decided to reduce his orchestral playing in favour of his rapidly growing number of solo engagements. To help to manage these solo concerts, he bought a computer in 1983. To cut a long story short, this lead to his writing a communications software program called TRANS-SEND that now has over 3 million users in 41 countries. Trans-Send International Ltd. has now become a substantial business with its own office building and staff, providing Malcolm with rare freedom to undertake solo concerts on the oboe.

 

Malcolm Messiter. What the papers said:

(ENGLAND)

The Times

Phenomenal!

Records & Recording

...provides a vehicle for an astounding display of virtuosity such as I have never heard before from an oboist. Bewildering velocity of fingers and tongue, phenomenal breath control, harmonics and the upward extension of the oboe's range a fourth beyond its 'highest note', F in altissimo, are allied to rhythmic vivacity and exuberant showmanship. Yet, when it comes to a simple cantilena, we hear ravishing tone and a musician's sensibility. After this my first encounter with the British oboist Malcolm Messiter, I can best describe him as the Heifetz of the oboe. (Lionel Markson)

Hi Fi News

Best of the month! If any record was calculated to bend the unfamiliar ear to the beauty of sound possible from the oboe, then this is surely such a disc. Malcolm Messiter possesses a distinctively rich, glowing tone and a wide, but nicely varied and controlled vibrato; it sounds especially seductive in the arrangement of the Debussy. In sheer dexterity, too, Messiter yields to no one. There are formidable triplet octaves in the Pasculli, while a little later, as the theme is picked out amid a welter of mordents, it is difficult to credit a single player at work.

Daily Telegraph

... Malcolm Messiter exercised an almost hypnotic sway over his audience with his flawless timing, the eloquent beauty of his long-breathed phrasing, and scintillating agility ...

Daily Telegraph

This oboist gave the work a brightness of tone, an incisiveness of phrase, and a brilliance of articulation, which are not within the range of the flute. His performance showed an ideal combination of musical sensibility with the instinctive showmanship of the virtuoso, performing prodigious feats in the cadenzas of both first and last movements.

(Trevor Sturges) Malcolm Messiter, again in total command, really did hold his audience in breathless fascination. Once, when the variations reached even dizzier heights of complexity, I found myself glancing around to see where the other two oboists were!

(EUROPE)

Oslfrissen Zeitung

In the Concerto in E minor by Telemann we heard an oboist of great stature in Malcolm Messiter. The intensity of sounds that he coaxed from his instrument was astounding.

L'Alsace

But it was the brilliant and vital rhythms of the allegro of Telemann's Oboe Concerto which drew the greatest enthusiasm from the audience. The talented soloist was Malcolm Messiter

Ruhr-Nachrichten

Before he began, the oboist, Malcolm Messiter, had drawn the audience onto his side with his friendly approach; this he then musically justified throughout a fine, virtuoso performance. He held great command with his good technique especially in the fast movements.

Zuger Thevlatt

The oboe Concerto by Telemann finally gave reason for excitement; the oboist Malcolm Messiter was exceptional.

(NORTH AMERICA)

Tulsa Tribune

Messiter's control of tone quality and dynamics was amazing. He used sounds that fit each turn of phrase. It was obvious that he conceived the qualities in advance that best suited his musical purpose, and then through the use of his phenomenal technical skill, brought them into being. Messiter's stage presence also enhanced his playing. His style is that of a well-schooled recitalist, and he "sold" his programme with precision, scrupulous intonation, and exquisite intensity of interpretation.

Montreal Gazette

There is no question Malcolm Messiter plays the oboe like a wizard. This young Englishman can do just about anything he wants with the instrument, including producing notes without any apparent source of air...with the arrival of the larghetto movement in Bach's concerto in A major for oboe d'amore we got some very superior music making.

(FAR EAST)

The Philippines Daily Express

The Pied Piper is an Oboist! Messiter was decidedly the evening's phenomenon; he was in other words, the incredible oboist from whose instrument emanated some of the most exquisite musical sounds imaginable. His unassuming manner did not prepare the audience for his insuperable skill and dexterity (which bespoke masterful breath control and a remarkably wide range of tonal hues), and an expressivity of the highest order. Any avid music lover would go through all lengths to listen to and be mesmerized by Messiter's near celestial music.

(AFRICA)

Rand Daily Mail

..involving breathing in through the nose while using the cheeks as bellows for expelling breath thus giving an uninterrupted sound...Messiter is a supreme master of his oboe. ...The phrasing and general musicianship which both these musicians exhibited in the Schumann was outstanding, and the pyrotechnics involved in the "Carmen" had to be heard to be believed. Unless witnessed, it is almost impossible to believe that such wizardry can be achieved on the oboe. No wonder that Mr. Messiter has earned the title of "Heifetz of the oboe"... Malcolm Messiter performed an oboe concert by Corelli transporting us back to a more serene order of living, with luscious tone and impeccable playing. His performance demonstrated phenomenal technique and musicality in every aspect of the wind players' art.

(SOUTH AMERICA)

El Tiempo - Buenos Aires

Marcello's, Concerto in C minor had Malcolm Messiter as oboe soloist, with flawless technique and amazing breath control and whose sheer pyrotechnical display was a joy, to hear. The poignant Adagio can be singled out as an example of out-of-this-world inventiveness and beauty.

El Spectador - Bogota

Next we had the pleasing and illuminating oboe concerto by Alessandro Marcello, in which the soloist Malcolm Messiter obtained the greatest ovation of the evening, quite surprising for the more than apathetic audience of the hall in question. The phenomenon can be explained by the fact that the oboist is a dexterous performer, who "sang" beautifully in the slow movement and displayed an astonishing agility in the final Presto, which he played at an impressive speed. Virtuosity always pleases, even in the frosty Sala Arango.

La Nacion - Buenos Aires

The concerto for oboe and orchestra in C minor by Alessandro Marcello introduced us to such an admirable soloist as Malcolm Messiter, whose incredible technique and great musicality paid tribute to the interpretative tradition of the musical dynasty, of Goosens.

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