Oboe

James Ostryniec will present an oboe concert at UMBCOboist James Ostryniec will perform a program of modern North American music Wednesday at 8 p.m. at the University of Maryland Baltimore County's Fine Arts Recital Hall as part of the school's Progressions '92 series of contemporary art.The program will feature the premiere of "Hawk," a solo oboe work written by UMBC composer Stuart Smith.Admission is free. For more information, call (410) 455-2942."The Laughing Cow" -- a dance revue about the adventures of two cows who travel around the world -- opens Wednesday at the Theatre Project, 45 W. Preston St.Curtain times are Wednesdays through Saturdays at 8 p.m., with matinees Sundays at 3 p.m., through March 15. Tickets are $10- $15. For more information, call (410)

SOME PEOPLE think of the bassoon as the Rodney Dangerfield of concert instruments. It seldom gets any respect. Something about its sound and shape makes it hard to take seriously.The approximately 300 bassoonists who are mem- bers of the International Double Reed Society would like you to think otherwise. They are not kidding. Look in their bible and you'll find a warning, strict as any federal law or edict. This bible -- all five volumes of it -- takes up half of a library shelf."Bassoons should be kept out of the hands of children and unauthorized persons; they are not toys for the ignorant."

Performing musicians are like salesmen. They sell us pieces of music that -- under ordinary circumstances -- we might not want to listen to.This came to mind last night in Stephens Hall at Towson State University at the first evening concert of the International Double Reed Festival. Selling the piano, the violin or even the cello repertory is relatively easy: So much of the merchandise is quality stuff, bearing labels with names such as Chopin, Bach and Beethoven. The repertory for bassoon and oboe -- the two instruments performed upon last night -- is quite another matter.

ANTON BRUCKNER'S Ninth Symphony is an oddity. Bruckner dedicated it to God as his farewell to earth. A well-meaning disciple, Ferdinand Loewe, revised it secretly to make it sound smoother after Bruckner's death in 1896 and before its 1903 premiere. Another scholar restored the original to cheers in 1932. It stayed that way.A standard reference work once noted that "the symphony is mostly interesting to musical scholars." It's more popular now, but to some it's still like one of those 150-car freight trains that roll by slowly as you want to get on with your life.

Henri Lazarof is a composer whose name always rings a bell, but whose music is rarely played. The music of Lazarof, who was born in Bulgaria and who completed his training in Israel, Italy and country, does not belong to any discernible national or stylistic school. He has taught for almost 30 years at the University of California at Los Angeles, once the home of Arnold Schoenberg, but Lazarof's individual music cannot be pigeon-holed as serialist. The music is thorny -- as a performance of his "Concertante II" (1988)

For its concert yesterday afternoon at the Baltimore Museum of Art, the Chamber Music Society of Baltimore featured three musicians who have tirelessly promoted the music of our time -- English hornist Thomas Stacy and oboists Bert Lucarelli and James Ostryniec.The three internationally known performers carry impeccable credentials. Mr. Stacy, principal English hornist with the New York Philharmonic, has premiered important concertos by such composers as Vincent Persichetti and Bernard Hoffer.