Concertino for Marimba and Winds - BAR0122507 | Muziek

Commissioned by Kazunori Momose, timpanist of the NHK Symphony Orchestra in Tokyo, for his brilliant student, Reiko Kono, the "Concertino for Marimba and Winds" was completed in November 1991, and subsequently recorded by Ms. Kono with the Tokyo Kosei Wind Orchestra in February 1992, under the composer's direction. Its first public performance took place on May 3, 1992, in Tokyo at the Fourth Otonowa Concert, with Ms. Kono as soloist and the Otonowa Wind Sinfonica with Mr. Momose himself as conductor.

The music is in three movements: an opening lyrical Nocturne followed by a light-hearted Scherzetto and culminating in a brilliant Toccata set in contemporary, hard-driving rock/boogie rhythms. All of the resources of modern Marimba technique, in both two-mallet and four-mallet performace are called upon a dazzling display of the virtuoso possibilities inherent in this "queen of the mallet percussion instruments" as the Marimba has come to be called by some in our time.