"It is the solo violinist who tells the stories and thus leads us through the whole work. The concerto consists of four movements. The first takes place inside a harem. Various women of the harem are presented with their individual personalities. The second movement is wholly given over to the dance - a kind of all-night party with different types of dance music. The third takes place the next morning, and consists in large part of variations on a celebrated Turkish song. Although the fourth movement begins dramatically, it comes increasingly to echo all that has gone before, and the work ends dreamily and calmly with sensuous oriental sonorities. Accordingly, the orchestral scoring includes several Turkish percussion instruments, such as kudümand glockenspiel, as well as marimba, vibraphone, celesta, and harp. The violin part is written in a highly virtuosic style and is used to hold the work together, since the solo instrument plays a cadenza between the movements, sometimes accompanied by a Turkish percussion instrument. Thus the four movements are linked to one another in intensely atmospheric unity." —Fazil Say