Informationen zu "Giovanni Bottesini Ed: David Heyes Elegy No.2 (Romanza Drammatica) Double Bass & Piano"
Verlag: Recital Music
Verlagsnummer: RM936
EAN: 9790570459360
ISMN: M-57045-936-0
Beschreibung
Only available in SOLO TUNING. Elegy No.2 (Romanza Drammatica) has a
completely different character and style to Bottesini's other elegies, with a
dramatic and serious feeling which exploits many aspects of the double bass.
The opening theme is both lyrical and effective and, although much of the
music is still scale or arpeggio based, it is suffused with the operatic
style and dramatic potential of the mid 19th-century. Bottesini exploits
scalic and arpeggio figures in a musical way, alongside powerful and dramatic
double stops and harmonics, and the overall character is one of great beauty
and elegance. He uses the bass-friendly keys of D minor and ending in D
major, which opens up the harmonic possibilities. The minor key is both
wistful and reflective contrasting music of a more dramatic and technical
nature in the tonic major, and this is Bottesini at his most serious and
thoughtful. Elegy No.2 is not as showy as many other pieces by Bottesini, but
it does allow the player to demonstrate both a technical and music prowess
alongside the ability to exploit the lyrical, cantabile and dramatic
possibilities of the double bass. 'How he bewildered us by playing all sorts
of melodies in flute like harmonics, as though he had a hundred nightingales
caged in his double bass... I never wearied of his consummate grace and
finish, his fatal precision, his heavenly tone, his fine taste. One sometimes
yearned for a touch of human imperfection, but he was like a dead shot, he
never missed what he aimed at, and he never aimed at less than perfection.'
[H.Haweis, 1888] Giovanni Bottesini was called the 'Paganini of the Double
Bass' and was the finest double bass soloist of the 19th-century. He was born
in Crema (Lombardy) on 24 December 1821 and studied at the double bass at the
Milan Conservatoire with Luigi Rossi, alongside harmony and composition with
Nicola Vaccai (1790-1848) and Francesco Basili (1767-1850). His remarkable
career as a soloist began in 1839 and lasted fifty years, taking him to every
corner of the world. From Italy, his travels took him to Cuba (1846), USA
(1847), England (annually from 1849), Egypt, Ireland, France, Germany,
Russia, Mexico, Spain, Belgium, Monte carlo and many other countries
throughout a long and distinguished career. Bottesini was also famous as a
composer writing at least 13 operas (Cristoforo Colombo, 1847 / Il diavolo
della notte, 1856 / Ali Baba, 1871 / Ero e Leandro, 1879), a Messa da Requiem
(1880) and an oratorio, The Garden of Olivet (1887 - first performed at the
Norwich Festival), works for orchestra, 11 string quartets, string quintets,
songs and many virtuoso works for double bass. As a conductor he is
remembered primarily for directing the first performance of Verdi's Aida in
Cairo in 1871, but was also a repsected composer of Italian opera, including
seasons in Mexico, Paris, Palermo, Barcelona, London, Buenos Aires and Parma.
Bottesini's music for double bass is still at the heart of the solo
repertoire into the 21st-century, even though his orchestral and operatic
music has generally fallen from favour, but his Elegia for double bass and
piano is one of the most recorded works of the 20th-century. Giovanni
Bottesini died in Parma on 7 July 1889.
