An avant-garde composer, Luciano Berio was also active as an arranger, an example being his Quattro versioni originali della "Ritirata notturna di Madrid", an arrangement of Luigi Boccherini's Musica notturna delle strade di Madrid.

[3][1] Brahms himself stated once in a letter to the dedicatee of the original composition, Richard Mühlfeld, that he had not "been so impulsive as to write a concerto" for him.

As in the case of Brahms's original composition, the soloist part of Berio's arrangement can be played by either a clarinet or a viola.

[1] Berio paid close attention to the original, only adding an extended introductory section and arranging the rest of the composition for orchestra, leaving the clarinet (or viola) part almost unaltered.

[4] The list of movements in this composition are as follows: The composition is scored for clarinet (or viola) and an orchestra consisting of two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets in B-flat, two bassoons, one contrabassoon, three French horns in F, two trumpets in C, one trombone, timpani, and a full string section.