Alexander Goehr: Adagio (Self Portrait)

For orchestra, Op. 75 (2003)
Commissioned by the Musikalische Akademie des Nationaltheater-Orchesters Mannheim e.V.

Published by Schott Music Ltd., London

The BBC Philharmonic, Conducted by H.K. Gruber

The composer writes:
"This work is modelled closely on Mozart’s Adagio in B minor for piano, following the harmonic and motivic events of the Mozart. But when I came to consider an orchestral composition, I replaced the repeats which characterize Mozart’s piece – both halves of the piece are repeated – with drastic variants which, while retaining the precise proportions of the original impose a gradual acceleration of tempi – the second greater than the first."

The painting is "The Artist in His Studio," by Vermeer, thought to be a self portrait.