Double Bass Concertos

Wykonawcy: Stefano Sciascia (Contrabas)
Orchestra Antonio Salieri (CD 1)

Gianni Amadio (Contrabas)
Orchestra Interpreti Veneziani (CD 2)

Domenico Dragonetti was born in Venice in 1763 but spent his professional life in London. The greatest double-bass virtuoso of his age, he was often compared to Paganini on account of his ‘immense hands’, which enabled him to surmount the most complex technical difficulties. This is the world premiere recording of the fine Concerto in A major, a work that explores and exploits the entire gamut of the double bass’s technical and expressive capabilities.

Giovanni Bottesini (1821–1889) was also nicknamed the ‘Paganini of the double bass’. He was said to be able to ‘breathe a spiritual air into the strange mechanism’ of his instrument, unearthing ‘ever more unusual and perilous effects’.

The Concertino in C minor is a short but effective work, finely balanced and rich in invention.

The Russian-born Sergey Koussevitzky – double-bass player, composer, conductor and fount of innumerable anecdotes – succeeded Pierre Monteux in 1924 at the Boston Symphony Orchestra. The music he wrote for the double bass, including this Concerto in F sharp minor, unsurprisingly benefits from having been written by someone who knew both instrument and orchestra inside out.