WORKS FOR DOUBLE-BASS AND PIANO VOL. 2

To the figure of the man who was called, without any exaggeration, the Paganini of the double bass, Concerto had already dedicated an exploratory album, so to speak, with the same extraordinary performers. Now it enriches the knowledge of the Cremasque composer’s Works for double bass and piano with a second, definitive volume. Although his figure as a virtuoso in the most Mephistophelian, Paganinian or Listzian sense, precisely prevails in the iconography of the time and all things considered even in the memory of us descendants, Bottesini was in fact a complete, eclectic and versatile composer, assiduously cultivating other genres as well: sacred music, an orchestral genre assimilated to the “symphonic poem,” and, above all, chamber music in general, with an important corpus of quartets and quintets. Within the chamber music sphere, the compositions dedicated directly to his instrument, of which – as is well known – he revolutionized technique and sound, are naturally numerous: it is surprising that they reveal in their outcomes an expressiveness that is all in all very balanced, having to hold together many different things such as: virtuosity (obvious since we are dealing with the greatest double bass virtuoso of all time), a profound melodic vein, the temperament typical of the prevailing Romanticism and even a structural thought, a certain formal structure. Balance and poetry that one would perhaps not expect from a performer who captivated crowds (and rulers) to the point of evoking feelings and swooning in much the same way as we still do today at our rock concerts.
Splendid performance on double bass by Francesco Siragusa, who in 1997 was chosen by Maestro Riccardo Muti to be a member of the orchestra of the Teatro alla Scala and the Philharmonic Orchestra of La Scala in Milan, where he currently works. His interpretations arouse enthusiastic acclaim everywhere thanks to his extraordinary temperament and the great singability he gives to the double bass.