The story of Offertorium’s commission began with a chance conversation between the composer and Gidon Kremer, of whose playing skills Gubaidulina was an immense admirer, during a cab ride they happened to share.
The request stuck in the composer's mind, and from that chance encounter, Offertorium was born – even though Kremer's whirlwind success, and the permission he had received to play outside the Soviet Union for two years, soon led him to forget all about it.
She drew inspiration from Kremer’s performance style; in particular, she took advantage of his handling of opposites and their transitions and his tone, which she recognized as expressing “total surrender of the self to the tone.” Offertorium is thus an example of a piece crafted both for and from the person to whom it was composed and dedicated.
In uniting her twin inspirations, Webern and Bach, and in the deep Christian symbolism of the theme's "death" and "resurrection", Offertorium is a work representative of Gubaidulina's mature period.
Offertorium was first performed in 1981 in Vienna by Kremer and the ORF Symphony Orchestra, directed by Leif Segerstam, and was immediately lauded for its striking beauty.