Joseph Horovitz was born in Vienna in a Jewish family that fled to England in 1938 to escape the Nazi annexation of Austria when Joseph  was 12 years old. He studied composition at the Royal College of Music with Gordon Jacob, and later spent a year in Paris to study with renowned pedagogue Nadia Boulanger, whose students ranged from Aaron Copland, Phillip Glass, Quincy Jones, and Astor Piazzolla. Horovitz maintained an active career as a composer and conductor from the 1950’s through the early 2000’s, and was known for incorporating jazz and other popular styles into his works. He is most widely known for his “Pop-Cantata” Captain Noah and His Floating Zoo (1970), which has been widely performed in the United Kingdom. Horovitz passed away on February 9th, 2022 at the age of 95.

The Quartet for Oboe and Strings Op. 18 highlights the oboe’s association with pastoral scenes, with the strings painting an energetic background. The first movement is driven by flowing 16ths in the strings and follows an extended sonata form. The second movement is slow and melancholic, with contrapuntal chromatic motifs that are passed between all four players. The third movement is a mischievous rondo, with a cheerful opening oboe melody that repeats throughout the movement, and is elaborated on with each new iteration.