Chopin: Grande Valse Brillante, Op. 18 for double bass and piano (arr. by Michael Kurth)

About the Composition (from Michael Kurth)

Bassists, here's your chance to program some recital music that non-bass players will recognize. Your pianist will thank you. Your audience will hum along. Kittens will cuddle you. (Kitten cuddles are not specifically guaranteed.)

Composition History (from Wiki)

The Grande valse brillante in E-flat major, Op. 18, was composed by Frédéric Chopin in 1833 and published in 1834. Chopin dedicated it to his pupil, Laura Horsford.[1] This was his first published waltz composition for solo piano, although prior to 1834 he had written at least sixteen waltzes that were either destroyed or eventually published posthumously.

Chopin also gave the title Grande valse brillante to the next three waltzes in the Op. 34 set, published in 1838.

In 1909, Russian composer Igor Stravinsky made an orchestral arrangement of this waltz for Sergei Diaghilev's 1909 ballet Les Sylphides. Other composers who orchestrated this waltz for that ballet are Alexander Gretchaninov, Gordon Jacob, Roy Douglas, and Benjamin Britten.

Who is this arrangement for?

The progressing bassist who seeks to expand their musicianship in thumb position. Toggle to see examples of the sheet music.

About the Composer

Kurth has been a member of the Atlanta Symphony bass section since 1994. 

Michael Kurth thinks most artist biographies are pretentious and boring, and feels a welcome sense of liberation, not to mention mischief, when writing about himself in the third person. He further believes that all artist biographies should include whether the artist prefers cats or dogs, or is ambivalent. He allows that there is room for ambivalence on this issue.

Kurth prefers dogs.

He also enjoys shrimp burritos, dive bars, road trips, thrift stores, found art, shiny pants, folk plumbing, collecting odd musical instruments, neologism, and bourbon.

Kurth was born in 1971 in Virginia and grew up near Baltimore. He started playing the bass in fourth grade, went to public schools, and got his Bachelor’s Degree at Peabody Conservatory, where he studied bass with Harold Robinson. He also studied cello and viola at Peabody, and did okay at cello, but his ham-fisted viola playing caused his roommate Rick to forbid him from ever practicing it in their dorm room.

He once stole one of those convex security mirrors, just to savor the irony, but he feels a lingering sense of guilt, even though it was laying in a pile of stuff that was probably destined for the dumpster anyway. But still.

Kurth has been a member of the Atlanta Symphony bass section since 1994. 

The ASO has commissioned and premiered many of his orchestral and choral works. A recording on the ASO Media label is scheduled for commercial release on CD and digital platforms in February 2019, including Everything Lasts Forever, A Thousand Words, May Cause Dizziness, and Miserere featuring Grammy Award-winning mezzo-soprano Kelley O’Connor.

He frequently collaborates with Atlanta poet Jesse Breite on vocal works, including Miserere, Tenebrae, and Magnificat.

He was named “Best New Composer” by Atlanta Magazine in 2017.

He has been awarded Artist-in-Residence fellowships from the Hermitage and Serenbe.

Many Atlanta-area artists have commissioned and performed his works, including the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Chorus and Chamber Chorus, the Atlanta Chamber Players, the Atlanta Young Singers, the Gwinnett Young Singers, the Morehouse College Glee Club, the Peachtree String Quartet, the Franklin Pond String Quartet, the Atlanta Contemporary Ensemble, Concert Artist Guild Award-winning violist Jennifer Stumm, the Georgia Sinfonia, the Atlanta Community Symphony Orchestra, the DeKalb Symphony, the Georgia State University Wind Ensemble, and movement artists gloATL.

He teaches bass at Emory University.