Orientale, concerto for two saxophones and wind orchestra, was composed in 2011 as a tribute to the music and life of Reinhold Glière. The work takes the third movement of Glière’s String Quartet No. 2 in G minor, Op. 20 as its point of departure, substantially expanding and transforming the original into a large-scale concertante work.

The recomposition completely changes the instrumental identity of the source: the original string quartet disappears, replaced by two solo saxophones and an orchestra composed exclusively of winds. Glière’s material is redistributed, extended and reimagined through new orchestral colours, while the two saxophones bring its melodic writing into a more overtly lyrical, expressive and virtuosic foreground.

Evoking the caravansaries and bazaars of Central Asia through its lyrical and exotic melodic character, the concerto retains traces of Glière’s musical world while giving the original movement a different scale and perspective. Through this orchestral recomposition, a chamber work becomes a double concerto — more expansive, powerful and highly coloured, yet conceived throughout as an homage to Glière.