As Cecilia Xuereb rightly pointed out (The Sunday Times, November 23), the repertoire of the bassoon is hardly a vast one, and mostly relates to the Classical period or thereabouts. As was the case with George Zukerman's concert at the Manoel Theatre, very often bassoonists have to resort to transcriptions in order to compile a full programme.

Your readers may be interested to know that Malta too has contributed towards the expansion of this repertoire. Of the eight I have composed so far, one is a concerto for bassoon and orchestra, subtitled Concerto Barocco.

Written in 1998, this concerto has received its fair share of airings both locally and abroad. The most notable are the two performances in Rome in 1999 with Franco Sugoni, first bassoonist of the former RAI Symphony Orchestra of Rome, and the two performances in Palermo in 2002 with Patrick de Ritis, at present principal bassoonist of the Vienna Symphony Orchestra.

The concerto is also available on compact disc, featuring Franco Sugoni and the Goffredo Petrassi Orchestra of Rome, conducted by E. Gaudiomonte.

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