Taking inspiration from Strauss and New Orleans “slave songs”, Grenfell has written a new work for clarinet and bassoon.

The idea for a work for clarinet and bassoon came from a conversation in 2014 with Tahnee van Herk, principal bassoon of the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra. I had just completed a little work for chamber orchestra called Tarraleah, which was commissioned for the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra by Hydro Tasmania. Tahnee asked if I would be interested in writing a piece for her to play with Andrew Seymour, Principal Clarinet in the orchestra, and I immediately jumped at the opportunity.

Maria GrenfellMaria Grenfell

Gradually the idea for the piece evolved into a ‘double concerto’ which could be a companion piece for the Duett-Concertino for Solo Clarinet, Bassoon and String Orchestra by Richard Strauss. One of his final compositions and written in 1947, the Duett-Concertino is one of only about four works that I could discover for anything similar to the instrumentation, so it was exciting and a little intimidating to be writing for this rare combination.

The Strauss work is a beautifully lyrical and amiable composition, flowing with melodies, and reminiscent of the...