[2][3] Apart from the soloists, the Double Concerto is scored for two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets in B♭, two bassoons, two horns in F, two trumpets in C, timpani and strings.
[4] On 21 September 1927 Holst heard the Bach Concerto for Two Violins performed at the Queen's Hall, the sisters Adila Fachiri and Jelly d'Arányi being the soloists.
[5][6] The Double Concerto was first performed by the dedicatees, Fachiri and d'Arányi, with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra under Oskar Fried, at a Queen's Hall concert on 3 April 1930.
[7] Though the soloists were quite equal to the score's challenges, Fried's contribution was not well received; he was described in the press as "quite the least acceptable conductor heard at a London symphony orchestra concert for a long time".
The first movement, a Scherzo, opens with an ostinato rhythm played by cello and double bass, to which a first theme is added by clarinets, bassoons and violas.
It was called "highly intellectualized",[6] and even "absolutely threadbare",[8] but the Daily Telegraph wrote that it was "completely satisfactory, for even at a first hearing the close relation between form and material is obvious", and noted that the second movement's melody had "moments of rare beauty" in spite of being "just a little heartless".
[14] It has over the years been an infrequently performed work,[15][16] perhaps because it gives soloists no chance to display their virtuosity, or because a concerto only about 14 minutes long is hard to programme.
[17][4] In recent years one critic has written that he found the Double Concerto "not a wholly satisfactory work: there is too much slow music, and the outer movements lose momentum through frequent changes of speed".