The second of three concertante works Rimsky-Korsakov wrote as director of Russia's Navy bands, this is billed not as a concerto (as are the compositions for trombone and clarinet), but simply as a set of variations. A short, ominous introduction lurching through the band's lower regions gives way to a hint of the main theme at the top of the ensemble, and the oboe quickly slips in to play Glinka's melody Beautiful Maiden, a lilting polonaise. Twelve very short variations ensue -- the whole work can be played in less than nine minutes -- with soloist and band taking nearly equal shares of the melodic work. Among the more striking variations are the fourth, in which the oboe plays recitative material over trills in the horns and flutes and a slightly sour waltz not long after that. Just before the end, the oboe takes a cadenza that is itself a sort of variation on the 12th variation. The band bursts in with a few peremptory measures and definitively halts the proceedings.
