CDE84663 Bottesini Virtuoso Double Bass vol. 3

I first encountered Giovanni Bottesini’s compositions for double bass in August 1980, whilst I was still a student at the South African College of Music of the University of Cape Town, and quickly developed an affinity for the expressive power and virtuosity so central to all his music. Bottesini’s music has since then been a dominant presence throughout my entire career as soloist -- my graduation recital was devoted to ten of his showpieces with piano -- I performed his Gran Duo Concertante for violin and double bass for my concerto debut with the Philharmonia orchestra in London in 1984 -- I have performed his Concerto in B minor with orchestras around the world -- I have championed his Gran Quintetto with double bass -- I have taught his compositions to a new generation of aspiring soloists -- and almost every recital I have ever performed has featured at least one of Bottesini’s compositions. I am grateful to Meridian Records for enabling me to indulge my passion for the music of the man now immortalised as the ‘Paganini of the Double Bass’, and it is especially gratifying to have been able to record volume three in my series ‘Virtuoso Double Bass: Bottesini’, as we celebrate the bicentenary of Bottesini’s birth. - Leon Bosch

It did not take long for Giovanni Bottesini (1821-1829) to begin making a name for himself as a virtuoso of the double bass, first in his small home town of Crema and later across Europe and the Americas. That success was made possible in part thanks to the substantial amount of music, ranging in scale from concertos to small character pieces, that he wrote for the double bass. His skills and aspirations as a composer, however, went wider than that. Although he was dubbed ‘the Paganini of the double bass’ from as early as 1843 (Paganini died in 1840), he did not restrict himself to writing music for his instrument, as his older compatriot largely did.

It is fair to say, however, that much of what he wrote arose from his professional life as a musician. A string of several operas begins with Colón en Cuba, produced in Havana in 1847, where Bottesini had been working as a musician in the opera house orchestra. This is something he had been doing for a while in Italy, often additionally providing solo interval entertainment in the shape of operatic fantasies – variations on melodies of well-known operas. He would go on to work as an opera conductor in several countries: a particular highlight was to be given the Cairo premiere of Verdi’s Aida in 1871, but he toured the US with his own company in 1850, and conducted seasons in Paris, Palermo, Barcelona and London thereafter. Such international connections led to the premieres of his operas L’Assedio di Firenze in Paris and Ali Baba in London.

Travel also instilled a deep respect for chamber music, since he would often have the opportunity to play at private gatherings and music societies, sometimes reuniting with the cellist Alfredo Piatti, a fellow former student of the Milan Conservatory. Instrumental music of this kind had fallen out of favour in mid-19th century Italy, where opera was the predominant musical art form. As a consequence, very few composers there were writing in the Viennese tradition of Haydn, Beethoven and so on. Bottesini, however, published his first quartet in 1845 and went on to write at least five more as well as four string quintets for various combinations of instruments. Moreover, it was experiencing how chamber music was practised in other European countries that prompted him to help set up several chamber music societies in Italy, including the very first there, in Florence in 1861.

But it was his prowess as an instrumentalist that earned him access to this world, which returns us to the music for double bass that, thanks to his ability to perform it, brought him such international celebrity. Of this, there are multiple examples: three concertos for solo double bass; concertante works for double bass and violin or clarinet; double bass duets; operatic fantasies based on operas by Bellini, Donizetti and Verdi; and shorter character pieces. These evocative or virtuoso pieces, five of which are presented here, are often pastiches, variations or dances written with no real intention other than to entertain and, perhaps just a little, to show off the player’s skill and range.

Bolero

This piece for double bass and piano, which exists in manuscript versions in both A minor and B flat minor, was written in 1885. Bottesini spent much of that year in London, where he was involved with the setting up of a music society that counted a number of Italians among its patrons. The music, of course, has a Spanish influence, although it is not until a little way into the piece that the characteristic castanets rhythm appears. A slow, recitative-like passage, incorporating a few bars of wistful, melody serves as an introduction until familiar rolling arpeggios break out in the piano part. After some fast double bass flourishes, the bolero itself starts: a vocalistic, even coloratura, double bass line underscored by the pianist, who is permitted some moments to herself as well as marking out the rhythm and the changes of harmony.

Allegretto Capriccio

This undated work, unpublished during Bottesini’s lifetime, is often given the additional description ‘alla Chopin’, although the description is not found in the manuscripts (once again, there are copies in different keys, as well as a version for double bass and strings). A short, declamatory opening in the piano leads to a fast-moving waltz in 3/8 time. The melody, played by the double bass, is given an additional, if halting, urgency by the quaver rest on the first beat of the bar, as if propelled by the accompanying piano figure. The melody’s downward direction adds to the sense of hesitancy, until an upward flourish in the double bass, a kind of lightbulb moment, reverses the direction of the theme and introduces a more flowing music. The first theme returns but, more resolute this time, the double bass goes on to conclude in virtuoso style.

Fantasia on ‘I Puritani’

Bottesini turned to the operas of Vincenzo Bellini for a number of his operatic fantasies: Norma, Straniera, Beatrice di Tenda, La Sonnambula and I Puritani. The latter began to take shape in versions with orchestra for double bass and violin around 1848 then double bass and cello in 1851, before Bottesini wrote out a version featuring double bass and piano some time later that decade. This was another period in his life when he was a frequent visitor to London, perhaps explaining the choice of opera setting: I Puritani is a story of internecine love during the English Civil War in which heartbreak and tragedy beckon but are ultimately averted. Accordingly, the Fantasia’s lively ending comes after a series of four more subdued variations, preceded by a quick-step piano introduction and alternating with two lightly militaristic piano interludes.

Introduction and Variations on the Carnival of Venice

Paganini is generally credited with having instigated the tradition of writing virtuoso variations on the traditional Neapolitan song ‘O cara la mia mamma’ under the title Carnival of Venice. He published his 20 variations in 1829; Bottesini followed suit in 1849, performing the piece many times on his tours around the world.

The original song is a dialogue between a mother and a child who is old enough to complain at being stuck at home at the mill, dying of boredom (or suffering, as they put it). The alternative, cautions the mother, is being sent to school to learn how to work. So if I’m poor, I’ll have nothing to do? comes the response. Life is short, the mother smiles. Be happy!

Bottesini caricatures this message in the introduction to his theme and variations. It begins with a comically anguished statement in the piano of the start of the ‘O cara la mia mamma’ theme; the double bass responds with a completely different melody, emollient and carefree and unconnected to the theme. A series of short cadenzas leads to the theme and variations section. There are eight variations in all and displaying various technical tricks. Bottesini takes care to make sure that not only are the variations progressively more daring but that there is variety within them, with new elements added in the second half of each one.

Grande Allegro di Concerto ‘alla Mendelssohn’

If the Allegretto Capriccio is a tacit homage to Chopin, in that it does not seem to refer to a specific piece, the Grande Allegro di Concerto, which dates from 1857 or some time before, is a clear pastiche of the first movement of Mendelssohn’s violin concerto, although once again the manuscript does not mention either composer or work explicitly.

It is in the same key of E minor (typically, the manuscript of a version in F minor exists), although Bottesini’s tempo marking is Allegro maestoso, as opposed to the Allegro molto appassionata of the violin concerto. But it begins in a similar way, with quavers in the accompaniment leading almost immediately to the soloist’s first entry, an unrestrained singing melody, although Bottesini’s heads downwards where Mendelssohn’s goes up. Both solo parts soon break into triplets; the lead-in to the orchestral tutti is similar; both composers have the soloist hold a long, sustained note while the accompaniment introduces the second subject (although Mendelssohn’s is much the sweeter); the movement is dotted with uncannily similar cadential moments; indeed, even Bottesini’s cadenza resembles Mendelssohn’s, down to the sextuplet arpeggios that alert the orchestra to get ready to start playing again. The movement is approximately the same duration as the Mendelssohn, too, ending with a faster coda of passage work in the solo part; indeed, the only thing missing is the bassoon note emerging from the last chord to lead us directly into the second movement. One for another composer to take up, to continue the sequence?

Described as “A Classical Music Game Changer” by the Classical Music Magazine, London based award-winning Nigerian-Romanian pianist Rebeca Omordia is known as a vibrant, exciting virtuoso throughout the UK and overseas whose work has changed the face of classical music.

Rebeca was born in Romania to a Romanian mother and a Nigerian father. Having begun to establish a profile in her native country, she moved to the UK to study at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire and later at Trinity College of Music in London with Professor Mikhail Kazakevich.

In 2019 she launched the world's first ever African Concert Series, London, a series of monthly concerts featuring music by African classical composers. The series was given recognition in 2021 by joining Wigmore Hall’s Family of Partners. Described by the Guardian, Nigeria as “the pianist who cast a spell on Lagos”. She has worked with an array of international musicians, including a three year- partnership with world renowned British cellist Julian Lloyd Webber.

Leon Bosch conducts chamber and symphonic ensembles around the world and is one of the few double bass players to direct concertos from the instrument. Having worked with the finest conductors for 30 years as a member of groups such Academy of St Martin in the Fields, Philharmonia and Hallé, he learnt the repertoire and conductor’s craft from inside the orchestra, and finally made the transition to the podium in 2015, when he left Academy of St Martin in the Fields and went to study in St Petersburg with Alexander Polishchuk. Since then he has conducted orchestras across the UK, Europe, India, South Africa and Mozambique. During his playing career, he performed concertos around the world and served as a guest with ensembles such as the Lindsays, Brodsky Quartet and Zukerman Chamber Players. Leon is committed to rediscovering neglected music, as well as expanding and diversifying the double bass repertoire, and has recorded 16 CDs of wide-ranging programmes, with more in planning.

Throughout his career he has worked with leading composers, and his latest project is to revive the sonatina form for a programme he will tour and record for Meridian Records in 2021. He also commissions chamber arrangements of well-known symphonic classics for his ensemble I Musicanti, and set up I Musicanti Publishing in order to distribute these works. He is professor of double bass at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance in London and gives masterclasses in the US, Europe, South Africa, and the Far East. He has also served as double bass coach for youth orchestras including the I, Culture Orchestra, National Youth String Orchestra, Miagi Orchestra and Buskaid. He has contributed to programmes on BBC Radio 3 and 4 and written for The Strad and Classical Music magazines.

Leon grew up in South Africa, the son of the political activist Jonas Fred Bosch, and spent time in a police cell for organising protests while at school. He left the apartheid regime behind to study at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester. He became a British citizen in 2000. In recent years he has returned to his roots, musically, forming the Ubuntu Ensemble with other UK-based South African musicians, and commissioning music for the South African Double Bass project, the first CD of which was released in 2020. He also acts as a mentor for South African musicians worldwide. Away from music, he runs marathons and ultra-marathons and holds a Master’s degree in Intelligence and International Relations from Salford University.

 Ariane Todes (2021)