Don Giovianni's Dream

The composition was written in 1989, commissioned by the Triebensee Blazers Ensemble to celebrate their tenth anniversary. Their patron is the Czech composer and conductor Josef Triebensee (1772-1846), whose beautiful arrangements of Mozart operas have been performed often by chamber wind ensembles around the world. My favorite arrangement is that of Don Giovanni for a classic wind octet. I wanted to create something like a “pendant” to this work, to make a “dream fantasy” of the story of Don Giovanni.

With the oboe as a primary solo voice, this fantasy reveals itself in a series of soloist passages and ensemble episodes. These tutti passages are meant to share a timbre with more traditional, classical works, like those of Josef Triebensee.

Program Notes by Ivana Loudová