Henze's Double Concerto was commissioned by Paul Sacher and his Collegium Musicum Zürich and is dedicated to him and his wife, Maya Sacher, like Henze's Sonata per archi.

[1] It was finished in 1966 and was premiered on 2 December 1966 by the Holligers as the soloists and Sacher conducting his Collegium Musicum Zürich.

[2] The concerto is in one movement which has a total duration of approximately thirty minutes.

[1] In recordings, the tracks are usually divided according to this structure: Since this is a concertante piece, it features many technical challenges, such as double harmonics, flutter-tonguings, microtone glissandi and the so-called circular breathing, a technique which was fairly recent at the time.

For Henze, it is important to have a decorative contrast in instrumentation such as the harp, since "the distinctive oboe timbre can exhaust the listener if overdone".