Work on the first piece in the B series of Gemini Duos was resumed after a hiatus of more than five years. The piece is scored for violin and contrabassoon; it was written intermittently between London and Tokyo, during concert tours of the Wiener Philharmoniker, and was subsequently completed in Vienna.

 

Lasting almost 7 ½ minutes, it is one of the longest duos, and commences by outlining the greatest possible distance between the two instruments: the violin occupies a dizzyingly high register, while the contrabassoon stays within a low register and assumes a "grotesque" character. Articulation and structure are also extremely differentiated. The violin’s long, vibrato-free, and plain bow strokes clash with the contrabassoon’s very short, bizarre, and often syncopated staccatos. It is only when the two instruments play together that a peculiarly hybrid harmony emerges, with its patterns as well as the use of fifths imparting a flavor that is subtly reminiscent of medieval church music. However, all these elements appear in distorted contexts that seem to create patterns resembling obliquely superimposed harmonic lattices; the resulting peculiar ambiguities also permeate the transitions between different parts.

 

Within this interplay between extreme registers and articulations, each instrument acquires a distinctive profile, with the violin embracing a more agile character while the contrabassoon adopts a more profound disposition; this enables the piece to flow despite these extremes. The rapid final section with its incongruous cadenza-like insertions illustrates the eccentricity of this – cunningly – virtuoso piece.