Possibly the very first Concerto for 2 Tubas and Orchestra, my work draws its inspiration from the Nordic landscape, traditions and its association with its most celebrated composer, Edvard Grieg.

It can be listened to as a partly descriptive work if one’s imagination works overtime! The subtitles of each of the four movements give a clue to the mood and atmosphere of the music.

The Concerto is structured around what I call the “Grieg Motif”, a 3-note figure familiar to those who know the Piano Concerto and the third of the Symphonic Dances. This idea provides the foundation of the work’s numerous themes.

The bass and contrabass tubas often play separately, sometimes antiphonally, underpinning the orchestral bass and only rarely simultaneously, in order to highlight each instrument’s particular timbre, especially the very low tones of the contrabass tuba.