Concerto for String Bass and band

Infos :

With this contrabass concerto a wish dating from my student years has become reality. Henk Guldemond, at the time leader of the Concertgebouw Orchestra´s contrabass section, invited me to discuss with him the possibilities of the contrabass and of a concerto for this instrument. In the end, this didn´t amount to anything, but the idea remained in the back of my head together with the intention to start a future contrabass concerto with a piccolo solo.
More than 25 years after this conversation, the idea was realized after all. I suggested writing a concerto for contrabass and wind orchestra to contrabassist Peter Leerdam - at the time a fellow student of mine - and to conductor Sef Suylen and wind orchestra `Sint Jan´ from the Dutch town of Wierden. The idea was received so favourably, that a commission could be realized, owing to great efforts on the part of Sint Jan´s and to benevolent grants from the Rabobank Noord-West Twente , the foundation for amateur music `De Kunstfactor - Unisono´ and the foundation `De Noaber van Wierden´.
The composition is in one movement and largely monothematic. The music has been cast into a sonata form, with a short Adagio inserted between the exposition and the development and a cadenza for the solo instrument halfway the recapitulation. I made grateful use of a number of ideas and suggestions of Peter Leerdam.