Bottesini: Gavotte and Introduction & Gavotte for double bass & piano (ed. Heyes)

About the Composition

This new edition includes two pieces - Gavotte & Introduction and Gavotte - both based on the same musical themes but also quite different.

Introduction and Gavotte is the better known of the two but the shorter Gavotte, with a more chromatic and harmonically interesting middle section, offers a new perspective on this much loved piece. The theme is fun and playful, with an instant appeal for audiences, and there are musical and technical challenges throughout the solo register for the intermediate bassist.

This digital edition is based on the original manuscripts by Bottesini, who was often inconsistent in bowing and articulation markings, and we aimed to create an edition without the need for many editorial changes and as faithful to the composer’s intentions as possible.

This edition includes accompaniments for both solo and orchestral tunings.

About the Composer

Giovanni Bottesini was called the 'Paganini of the Double Bass' and was the finest double bass soloist of the 19th-century. He was born in Crema (Lombardy) on 24 December 1821 and studied at the double bass at the Milan Conservatoire with Luigi Rossi, alongside harmony and composition with Nicola Vaccai (1790-1848) and Francesco Basili (1767-1850).

His remarkable career as a soloist began in 1839 and lasted fifty years, taking him to every corner of the world. From Italy, his travels took him to Cuba (1846), USA (1847), England (annually from 1849), Egypt, Ireland, France, Germany, Russia, Mexico, Spain, Belgium, Monte Carlo and many other countries throughout a long and distinguished career.

Bottesini was also famous as a composer writing at least 13 operas (Cristoforo Colombo, 1847 / Il diavolo della notte, 1856 / Ali Baba, 1871 / Ero e Leandro, 1879), a Messa da Requiem (1880) and an oratorio, The Garden of Olivet (1887 - first performed at the Norwich Festival), works for orchestra, 11 string quartets, string quintets, songs and many virtuoso works for double bass. As a conductor he is remembered primarily for directing the first performance of Verdi's Aida in Cairo in

1871, but was also a respected composer of Italian opera, including seasons in Mexico, Paris, Palermo, Barcelona, London, Buenos Aires and Parma.

Giovanni Bottesini died in Parma on 7 July 1889.