Concerto for Percussion & Winds

for two percussionists and symphonic winds

1988

Concerto for Percussion and Winds was commissioned by the Zealand Symphony with support from the Danish Art Council for the Danish Percussion Duo: Erik Jacobsen and Tom Nybye. The work is in one movement, which develops from a quiet beginning to a violent conclusion with an extensive solo section in the middle section. The concerto deviates from the classical concerto form with alternating tutti and solo sections, since both the soloists and the orchestra perform almost constantly during the entire piece. At times the soloists take the foreground with the orchestra in the background, in other sections the orchestra is in the foreground and the soloists in the background. The two soloists play as a close team, almost as if they were one soloist with four hands, and they often perform in canon with only one eighth note between the two parts. In the solo section, the two soloists become four soloists, in that each of the performer’s hands has its own independent voice.

Download programme note as PDF: Concerto for Percussion & Winds