The ninth Concerto for two oboes in C major Tomaso Albinoni's Op. 9 is one of the loveliest creations to be found among Albinoni's instrumental music. As is the case of many Italian Baroque concerti that are only known from published sets, though published in 1722, the Op. 9/9 may have been composed at any point in Albinoni's career up to that time. Stylistically, it belongs to the first decade of the eighteenth century given the concerto's short, ten-minute duration and its Allegro-Adagio-Allegro formal plan. Throughout this concerto, Albinoni makes masterful use of imitative devices between the two oboe parts. It is not "true," canonic-type imitation, but rather sort of a relaying of melodic material from the first oboe to the second. The first oboe spins out the melody and the second picks up the thread and either repeats it as is or in a modified form about a measure or so behind. This is especially effective in the gorgeous, minor-key Adagio movement, where the process of imitation results in tasty harmonic clashes between the two oboes. The outer movements of the concerto resemble one another, but both are exciting in their sense of onward movement and Albinoni's highly artistic handling of bright, and not necessarily heady, melodic ideas. The work as a whole is involving in a temporal sense and makes you want more, even if you are not so fond of the sound of the oboe. For an example of what "un-hyphenated" Albinoni sounds like, the Concerto in C major, Op. 9/9, is an excellent place to start. Although scored for two oboes, it is also commonly played in an adapted form in which either one or both oboe parts is replaced by a trumpet.

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