Giovanni Bottesini: Elegia for double bass & string orchestra (Solo Tuning)

About the Composition

Bottesini's Elegia is a staple of the solo double bass repertoire and is one of the most popular solo works in the repertoire. It has been recorded more than any other double bass piece and was rumored to be one of Bottesini's favorite works. The challenges are both musical and technical and demonstrate the lyrical and sonorous potential of the solo double bass.

This edition is for SOLO TUNING and includes two solo parts - one with the original bowings by Bottesini and one edited by David Heyes.

"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]

About the Composer

Giovanni Bottesini (1821-1889) was the greatest double bass virtuoso of the 19th-century and many of his compositions for double bass are still at the heart of the solo repertoire today. He spent much of his life in the opera house, as conductor and composer, and his music is inspired by the lyrical, cantabile, and virtuosic pyrotechnics of 19th-century Italian opera. He also transcribed a number of works for his own recitals and both arias are attributed to Bottesini but are in fact by other composers.