Description

In three lively and contrasting movements and lasting around ten minutes, Passione Amorosa is essentially a mini three-act opera for a soprano and tenor soloist …but portrayed by two virtuosic and serenading double bassists. The technical challenges are much simpler than in the Gran Duo Concertante, which was also originally for two double basses and piano, and this new digital edition was arranged some years ago for 2 double basses and string orchestra by David Heyes. Passione Amorosa is lively and full of high spirits and bravura, brimming with youthful energy and enthusiasm, from a composer who is able to display his extensive knowledge of the solo bass technique across its entire range successfully entwined with the operatic style of the day. Bottesini composed a number of original works for two double basses, all thought to have been written during his studies at the Milan Conservatoire (1835-39) or in the years shortly afterwards. This was probably the only time that Bottesini performed with another bassist during his long and illustrious career and Giovanni Arpesani (1820-1855), a former student at the conservatoire, was his duo partner at the time [also documented as Luigi Arpesani]. The duo performed together in 1844 at the Teatro San Benedetto in Venice, according to the biographer Gaspare Nello Vetro, but there is no mention of a performance of the Passione Amorosa. Although still at the beginning of his career, Bottesini would have been steeped in the early 19th- century Italian opera of Rossini, Bellini and Donizetti amongst others, and much of his music encapsulates the drama, passion and bravura of the opera house. “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] This edition is for double basses in Orchestral Tuning. Recital Music publish editions for 2 double basses and string orchestra (solo tuning) and violin, double bass and string orchestra (solo tuning).