Andante Sostenuto is scored for string sextet (2 violins, viola, 2 violoncellos, double bass) or string orchestra, was completed in Naples on 13 April 1885, and is dedicated to …Giulio Ricordi (1840-1912), Bottesini’s publisher and a member of the Ricordi family of publishers.
In one movement and lasting almost seven minutes, Andante Sostenuto is a beautifully original work contrasting tender and evocative music, with dramatic and vibrant episodes, in a colourful and atmospheric soundscape ideally suited to any audience or occasion. It remained unpublished until 2002 and is a forgotten jewel of the late 19th-century string chamber ensemble (or orchestra), Repertoire and demonstrates Bottesini at the height of his compositional powers.
Giovanni Bottesini (1821-1889) is remembered today for his virtuosic double bass music but he was also a prolific composer of operas, songs, chamber music and orchestral works. He spent much of his life in the opera house, as conductor and composer, and toured throughout the world as the leading double bass virtuoso of his generation.
2021 marked the 200th anniversary of Bottesini’s birth and there has been an amazing resurgence of interest in his music over the past fifty years. Recital Music has published many works by Bottesini and has plans to publish more over the coming years.
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Giovanni Bottesini was an Italian Romantic composer, conductor, and a double bass virtuoso born on December 22, 1821, in Crema, Lombardy1. He is often referred to as “the Paganini of the double bass” due to his extraordinary skill with the instrument.
Bottesini’s early musical education was provided by his father, an accomplished clarinetist and composer. He began playing timpani with the Teatro Sociale in Crema before the age of eleven and later studied violin with Carlo Cogliati1. His father sought a place for him at the Milan Conservatory in 1835, and Bottesini prepared a successful audition for the double bass scholarship in a matter of weeks.
After leaving the conservatory in 1839, Bottesini embarked on a globe-trotting career as a double bass virtuoso. He made his first appearance in England in 1849 and enjoyed great popularity for many years due to his extraordinary skill as a performer1. Bottesini was also known throughout Europe as a conductor and directed the first performance of Verdi’s Aida at Cairo in 1871.
Bottesini’s contributions to music include numerous operas, sacred works, orchestral pieces, and works for the double bass. His fantasies on Lucia di Lammermoor, I puritani, Beatrice di Tenda, and especially La sonnambula are virtuosic tours de force that are still popular with those who are highly accomplished on the instrument.
He passed away on July 7, 1889, in Parma.
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