Dialogues (Carter)

Dialogues is a composition for solo piano and chamber orchestra by the American composer Elliott Carter. The work was commissioned by the BBC for the pianist Nicolas Hodges and completed in 2003. It was first performed on January 23, 2004 at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in Southbank Centre, London, by Nicolas Hodges and the London Sinfonietta under the conductor Oliver Knussen. The piece was a finalist for the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for Music. In 2012, Carter composed a followup to the piece Dialogues II for the conductor Daniel Barenboim's 70th birthday.

Dialogues has a duration of roughly 14 minutes and is composed in a single movement. Carter briefly described the piece in the score program notes, writing, "Dialogues for piano and chamber orchestra is a conversation between the soloist and the orchestra: responding to each other, sometimes interrupting the other, or arguing. The single varied movement is entirely derived from a small group of harmonies and rhythms."

The work is scored for a solo piano and a chamber orchestra comprising flute (doubling piccolo), oboe (doubling cor anglais), clarinet, bassoon (doubling contrabassoon), two horns, trumpet, trombone, and strings.

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