Description

Elegia No.1 was published in Bottesini’s Grande méthod complète de contrebasse (c.1869) to illustrate the lyrical capabilities of the instrument, and was …rumoured to be the composer’s favourite work. It has been recorded more than any other work by Bottesini and is one of his most attractive and accessible pieces for double bass. Elegia No.1 is aimed at the intermediate bassist, offers musical and technical challenges in equal measure, and is an ideal ‘easy’ virtuoso work for bassists who are venturing into the higher reaches of the instrument. This edition returns to the version published in Bottesini’s Grande méthod complète de contrebasse, presumably corrected and edited by the composer. The edition is published with piano accompaniments for both solo and orchestral tunings and also includes two double bass parts – the original bowings by the composer and a newly edited part by David Heyes. Elegia No.1 is also available for solo double bass and string orchestra in both solo and orchestral tunings. “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]