Elegia No.2 (Romanza Drammatica) has a completely different character and style to Bottesini’s other elegies, with a dramatic and serious intent which exploits many …lyrical and sonorous possibilities of the double bass.
The opening theme is sensuous and evocative, suffused with the operatic flair and dramatic potential of the mid-19th century. Bottesini always exploits the technical challenges in a musical way, using powerful and dramatic double stops and harmonics to add variety and contrast, but the overall character is one of great beauty and elegance.
The bass-friendly keys of D minor and D major are used, offering many harmonic and dramatic possibilities. The minor key is wistful and reflective contrasting music of a more dramatic, optimistic and technical nature in the tonic major, but this is Bottesini at his most serious and wistful.
Elegia No.2 is not as showy as many pieces by Bottesini, but it allows the advanced bassist to demonstrate both a technical and musical prowess alongside the ability to exploit the lyrical, cantabile and dramatic possibilities of the solo double bass.
This edition includes accompaniments for both solo and orchestral tunings and two solo parts – Bottesini’s original bowings from one manuscript source and one edited by David Heyes.
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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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