About the creation

Quartetto Concertato was composed during the last months of 1969 in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The name of the composition suggests a 'concise concerto' for piano and three other instruments, which represent the various groups in the orchestra: the clarinet representing the woodwinds; the trombone - the brass, and the cello - the strings. Yet, each of the three orchestral instruments is also used here in a solo-virtuoso manner, giving it special prominence for a certain period of time. This is a free twelve-tone composition and the one-movement structure is comprised of 10 sections which flow into one another and differ from each other by the instrumentation. The first performance took place at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee in 1971, at a "Music From Almost Yesterday" concert of contemporary music.