Adagio and Variations (2011)

When the New London Chamber Ensemble asked me to make an arrangement of Mozart's Adagio for glass harmonica, flute, oboe, viola and cello (K. 617), I was much taken with the glass harmonica performances I found on Youtube! I wanted to try and capture some of the strange beauty of the instrument. I used cor anglais rather than oboe to give a warm, dark quality to the quintet – but didn't want to add anything of my own, as the music is so complete.

However, when I'd finished, I had the impulse to launch into a set of variations, and here I cast each of the five instruments in turn as a soloist, sometimes with a duo partner. The Adagio theme returns at the end, with each player adding a fragment from its own variation.

The piece was first performed at the Wigmore Hall, London, by the New London Chamber Ensemble, in July 2011.