compositions

Instrumentation: oboe, piano
Publisher: Chester Music Limited
First performance: Bengt Rosengren, oboe, Stefan Bojsten, piano, Stockholm, 23 February 1992

Programme Notes:
Salonen wrote Second Meeting in January 1992, ten years after writing Meeting this time orchestrated for oboe and piano, instead of for clarinet and harpsichord. The work belongs to a planned series of virtuoso duos, ‘meetings’, and is dedicated to Bengt Rosengren.

Formally, Second Meeting is very close to a familiar ‘theme and variations’ category, although there are seven themes, or melodies, all quite closely related.

Salonen: ‘I decided to write a version of the piece for oboe and a small orchestra, trying to remain reasonably faithful to the original (a la Ravel, perhaps). The orchestral version is called Mimo I).’
© Esa-Pekka Salonen