Takahiro Watanabe
The Japanese oboist Takahiro Watanabe graduated with distinction from Tokyo University of the Arts and completed further studies with Prof. Thomas Indermühle and Louise Pellerin at the
conservatories in Zurich and Winterthur.
He won prizes at international oboe competitions in Tokyo, in
Markneukirchen, at the Hans Schaeuble Competition in Lausanne
and was awarded the sponsorship prize at the Stockhausen Summer Course in Kürten.
Following his time as principal oboist of the Loh Orchestra Sondershausen/Theater Nordhausen, he has been principal cor anglais of the Brandenburg State Orchestra Frankfurt since 2003.
Takahiro Watanabe has performed regularly as a concert soloist and chamber musician. The German premiere of Peteris Vasks' English horn concerto took place with the Loh Orchestra Sondershausen in 2001, and he also performed the concerto again with the Brandenburg State Orchestra in Frankfurt (Oder) in 2014. He has lived in Berlin since 2003.
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Wataru Hisasue
Born in 1994 in Kyoto (Japan), Wataru Hisasue moved to Europe in 2013 and studied in Freiburg, Paris, and Berlin.
During his studies he won several prestigious competitions in Germany and Japan, including the German Piano Award at the 2016 Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy Competition.
In 2024 he added a prize at the International ARD Music Competition. In May 2025, he was awarded second prize at the Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels, one of the most prestigious international competitions for pianists.
Hisasue has since released seven CDs and has performed as a soloist with leading orchestras such as the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra (BRSO) and the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra.
Critics praise his remarkable technique combined with effortless elegance, as well as his refined sense for tone color and dynamic nuance. Audiences, too, respond with enthusiasm — often with standing ovations.
https://www.wataruhisasue.com
Nov. 25, 2025 - 7:30pm
(doors open 6:45pm)
Duo sans rigueur
Takahiro Watanabe (oboe)
Wataru Hisasue (piano)
program:
Francis Poulenc: Sonata for oboe and piano - FP 185
Within Les Six, the circle of French composers active in 1920s Paris, Poulenc was regarded as a master of tender harmonies and irresistibly beautiful melodies. His three late sonatas for woodwinds — for flute, clarinet, and this one for oboe — were written in the summer of 1962, the final year of his life.
Kishio Hirao: Sonate pour hautbois et piano
Hirao Kishio (1907-1953) composed his Sonata for Oboe and Piano in 1951, a chamber music work in which he combines Western forms with Japanese tonal colors. The sonata is considered an important contribution to the oboe literature in Japan and testifies to Hirao's compositional sensitivity.
Olivier Messiaen: Vocalise Etude
Composed in 1935 for soprano without text, Messiaen’s Vocalise-Étude is pure poetry in sound. Devoid of words, its flowing melodic line and breath-like phrasing lend themselves naturally to the oboe — an instrument whose voice seems made for such lyrical expressiveness.
Maurice Ravel: Valse nobles et sentimentales
Composed in 1911 for solo piano, Ravel’s Valses nobles et sentimentales pay homage to Franz Schubert, whose waltz cycles he greatly admired. Yet instead of nostalgic reverence, Ravel creates a modern, shimmering sound world: elegant dances, sharply outlined yet veiled in dreamy melancholy. Beneath their refined surface glimmer irony, longing, and exquisite sophistication — a dance poised delicately between grace and abyss.
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Pavel Haas: Suita per oboe e piano
Composed in 1939 during the German occupation of Czechoslovakia, Haas’s Suite reveals a striking inner freedom: passionate outbursts, dance-like rhythms and lyrical passages merge into music of haunting beauty — poised between turmoil and hope.