'Sinfonia Concertante for Solo Flute, Oboe and Wind Orchestra' • Conrad Ho

Title: 'Sinfonia Concertante for Solo Flute, Oboe and Wind Orchestra' (May 2023 - Jan 2024)
Composer: Conrad Ho
Dedication: Ailish Steele (flute), Charlie Dyble (oboe) And Junior Royal Birmingham Conservatoire Wind Orchestra

Performers:
Ailish Steele (flute)
Charlie Dyble (oboe)
Junior Royal Birmingham Conservatoire Wind Orchestra
Conrad Ho (Conductor/Composer)


Forewords:
This project started in May 2023 when an opportunity to compose and perform a piece specifically for JRBC’s Wind orchestra came up, an idea for which I am absolutely intrigued by and thus began, on that exact Saturday night, to compose what is now known as the 1st movement under the aesthetic of the classical era.

During the summer of 2023, I continued to work on the 2nd and 3rd movement. At that time, I was started to wonder why I chose classical style for the 1st movement. The obvious answer is this movement could not take long to compose as I have to complete within one week between the two rehearsals. However, I was not satisfied with an answer which lack convincible artistic reasons.
The 2nd movement, composed during the last two weeks of June 2023, was originally meant to be in an Italian baroque style. This idea remained until the 2nd day of composing it, I decided to go for something more “Romantic”, whatever that means, and thus forming a sort of musical timeline/chronological order as we play through the movements. This became the current ‘Lied Ohne Worte’, meaning “Song Without Words”, with intention to reference the Germanic Romantic style.

Finally, the 3rd movement. Before working on it, I knew it had to be as crazy and colourful as possible – hemiola, waltz, 20th century Prokofievian style, fugues, chorale, atonalities etc - Just to name a few elements for which I ambitiously would like to include in the final movement but it all returns to the question - Why?

I could not answer this myself at the time of composing it, until, I started preparing the score from a conductor’s perspective. It started to become apparent – It was about a journey of exploration. An exploration for one’s unique voice as a composer. This became fitting as I revisited the score earlier this year and to have ending of the finale concludes again with the original Rondo theme, signifying a return to one’s style and artistic ideologies closest to one’s heart.

I am immensely grateful to have an opportunity to premiere and perform this work with our two utterly virtuosic soloists, Ailish (flute) and Charlie (oboe), alongside the JRBC wind orchestra. All of above are the dedicatees of this composition.

The word “Concerto” means “to compete” in Italian and thus, it is only fitting for the orchestra to have a part of equal importance. Therefore, it is paramount that one should listen carefully and look out for the bits of virtuosic solo passages within the orchestra.