P?teris Vasks composed his Oboe Concerto in commemoration of the centenary of Latvian independence, and so the work became a hymn to his native country, its nature and its people, while simultaneously fulfilling Albrecht Mayer’s long-standing wish for an oboe concerto. The concerto is bookended by two pastoral movements: in the first – a morning nature scene – the oboe unfolds in extended cantilena passages above string tremolos and birdsong motifs in the woodwind. The dramatic atmosphere of the contrasting central movement, with its fiery folk dances, arioso passages and extended cadenza, gradually flows into the peaceful ‘evening pastoral scene’, mirroring the beginning of the work.