This work was the result of a decision of two Stockholm-based ensembles, the Rascher Saxophone Quartet and the Kroumata Percussion Ensemble, to commission a work using both groups. Gubaidulina (b. 1931), one of the leading figures of the Soviet (later, Russian) composers to come to prominence after the deaths of the major composers Shostakovich, Kabalevsky, and Khachaturian, has a strong interest in unusual instruments and combinations and accepted the request.

The composer's main interest was in contrasting the greatly differing techniques of the two groups: The saxophones, which are played directly by the breath, and the percussions which are generally played by indirect touch (using a stick, a mallet, or a bow, for instance.) At first, the saxophones accommodate themselves to the percussions, producing short, sharp staccato sounds that sound oddly like the sounds of tuned temple blocks. Soon, however, both groups exploit their contrasts. Then the percussion instruments "learn" how to produce sustained sound that blend with the individual chords and notes of the saxes, such as by bowing cymbals, using the sustained sounds of the flexatone, blending the saxophone chords with gongs, etc. As the precise sounds of a given percussion instrument often varies, Gubaidulina felt that she was writing "in expectation:" of certain sounds resulting from her combinations. "In Erwartung" is German for "In Expectation."

© Joseph Stevenson, Rovi