I normally don't do requests. Unless, of course, I have been asked to do so.
You may not be aware of this but Leonard Bernstein won another award, for explaining the music of Igor Stravinsky... to Igor Stravinsky!
The oboe sounds like a clarinet with a cold.
Read (this book), smile, enjoy, and if you happen to learn something along the way, don't get upset.
Beethoven wrote in three flats a lot. That's because he moved twice.
It (the double-clarinet in India) was primarily used for snake charming, since the snake would do almost anything to get the Indians to stop playing it.