Frank Martin

A Swiss composer adopts an approach to tonality in which the underlying chords remain conventional while the tonal center shifts continuously. The Petite Symphonie concertante reflects this practice through its classical scoring for strings and a continuo section of piano, harp, and harpsichord. In the course of the work the continuo instruments emerge as solo voices, and the sonata-allegro framework opens out to accommodate spontaneous, freely developed material.