Description

The Heritage Series features a wealth of exciting and innovative music from the 19th and 20th-century by some of the leading bassist-composers of the day. …Each book includes three or four works for the intermediate-advanced bassist bringing music by these important figures in double bass history back to life in the 21st-century. Book 4 features music from the UK, France, Germany and Czech Republic, mostly composed in the late-19th or early 20th-century, emphasising the lyrical and technical potential of the solo double bass, and is available with piano accompaniments for both solo and orchestral tuning. Vojta Kuchynka – Concert Waltz is a charming and elegant waltz, dating from the 1920s. It utilises the entire range of the bass, demonstrates great character and joie de vivre, and employs musical and technical challenges in equal measure.
Unpublished until Recital Music’s first edition, the style is typically Czech with just a hint of Viennese flair and magic. The opening melody is reminiscent of the music of Johann Strauss II, and the waltz was performed many times by the composer. Édouard Nanny – Airs Russes was first published in 1927 and was dedicated to Henri Moreau, a student of the composer. In one extended movement but in clearly defined sections, this is a fun work which utilises the entire range of the double bass including the highest harmonics. The main theme is march-like and full of confidence and bravado, contrasting music of a more elegant and song-like nature, demonstrating a composer who knew the solo potential of the double bass Oswald Schwabe – Adagio Op.4 was first published in an edition for double bass or cello by Fr. Kistner in Leipzig towards the end of the 19th-century. Best described as salon music, but of the highest order, the piece exploits the lyrical and sonorous qualities of the double bass throughout much of its middle register, in music which is both elegant and stylish, reminiscent of a previous age. J.P. Waud – Solo Study No.2 is from a suite of Six Solos Studies for the Double Bass with Pianoforte Accompaniment but the printed edition gives no information about the date of composition or the publisher. It emphasises the lyrical possibilities of the double bass, with a gently supportive arpeggio accompaniment, and offers musical and technical challenges in equal measure.