A CBSO/Royal Festival Hall Millennium Commission; Gran Duo was first performed on March 8; 2000 at the Royal Festival Hall in London by the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra; conducted by Sir Simon Rattle. The score is a dialogue between the two orchestral families of woodwind and brass; each with their respective material. Their initial characters; equating to the poetic stereotypes of “masculine” and “feminine” become progressively blurred and androgynised during the course of the work as larger sound masses give way to chamber music-style sub-groupings and individual instrumental solos. The wind-only scoring of the work posed various compositional challenges. The composer has stated that “if no one is playing; nothing is heard;” so the illusion of sustained sound has to be created without the support of a string section; Similarly; clear attack and accentuation have to be carefully sculpted; as there is no percussion to help articulation.

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