Koussevitsky Connections Book 1: USA - Seven Pieces for Unaccompanied Double Bass

About the Book

Koussevitsky Connections Book 1: USA features seven impressive and inventive pieces for unaccompanied double bass.

A wealth of innovative styles and idioms are encompassed in music, which has the ability to challenge, engage, and excite, and all were premiered during a concert tour of New England (USA) in April 2024. The project features fourteen pieces from composers in the UK, USA, Czech Republic, Spain and Hong Kong.

Find the European Koussevitsky Connections Book here.

About the Composers and Compositions

Serge Koussevitsky (1874-1951), the great double bass virtuoso and revered conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, is the inspiration for a new project from David Heyes and Recital Music. 2024 is the 150th anniversary of the birth of Koussevitsky and the 100th anniversary of his appointment as conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Serge Koussevitsky was a great advocate of contemporary music and the Koussevitsky Foundation, set up in memory of his second wife Natalie, commissioned, and continues to commission, orchestral and chamber works to this day.

1. Brian Choy (USA/Hong Kong) - Cadenza - in the style of Koussevitsky Cadenza is constructed from thematic ideas from different pieces by Koussevitsky, including the first two movements of his concerto, Valse Miniature and Chanson Triste. The a niente ending is inspired by Dark Shadows, a piece dedicated to me by my teacher and friend, David Heyes. Cadenza can be played in two ways: as written on the score or to serve as the “cadenza” of the first movement of Koussevitzky’s concerto. My piece (from the beginning to bar 41) would be replaced over the second beat of bars 83 to 128. The bassist should play bar 41 of my piece two octaves higher in order to be in position for the double stops ending in the Koussevitsky 1st movement. [Brian Choy]

Cadenza was premiered by Brian Choy at New England Conservatory (Boston, USA) on Saturday 20 April 2024.

2. Eric Funk (USA) - Through the Looking Glass - Variations on a Gesture Op.172 I created my homage to Koussevitsky through my pattern development technique using variations on a gesture from his Concerto in F # minor for Double Bass Op. 3. I felt that the lyrical and Romantic nature of that material was the best way to honour his memory. I tried to stay within the language boundaries he used as a composer while offering a sense of his prowess as a bassist and conductor, his technical skill coupled with his clear propensity for emotionally and dramatic performance. [Eric Funk]

Through the Looking Glass was premiered by David Heyes at Meetinghouse Arts (Freeport, Maine USA) on Sunday 21 April 2024.

3. Eric Hansen (USA) - Small Fantasia on the Third Page Excited by the invitation to compose something in celebration of this significant Koussevitsky anniversary, I chose to focus on the Concerto for creative inspiration. Ideas came as variants of melodic shapes and intervalic motifs, others as overt thematic and melodic references. With so many memorable and beautiful themes throughout the work, in order to keep the Fantasia within the size parameters of the commission, I drew only on material from the last page of the 1st movement - hence, the title. A huge thanks and shout out to David

Heyes and Recital Music for this compilation - it’s an honour to be part of celebrating one of music’s greatest figures. Happy Birthday, Serge! [Eric Hansen]

Small Fantasia on the Third Page was premiered by David Heyes at King’s Chapel (Boston, USA) on Tuesday 23 April 2024

4. Lourdes C. Montgomery (USA/Cuba) - Scenes at Seranak Seranak, with a perfect view of the Berkshires, is the name of the summer home of Serge Koussevitsky, originally named Bald Head Farm, which was built in 1912 by the Chicago millionaire Kate Sturges Buckingham. The 19-room mansion is now owned by the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Scenes at Seranak, composed in 2022 for ‘Koussevitsky Connections’ is a vibrant and dramatic work, with a strongly rhythmic momentum, remembering the character and energy of this important Russian musician. Scenes at Seranak was premiered by Susan Hagen at West Stockbridge Congregational Church (West Stockbridge, MA USA) on Saturday 27 April 2024

5. Michael Montgomery (USA) - Horizons I have, of course, been aware of Serge Koussevitsky for almost as long as I have been interested in the double bass, but, for all the information I might have come across concerning Koussevitsky, my impression of him was one of a famous virtuosic bass soloist who also happened to conduct. Upon being invited to participate in the KOUSSEVITSKY CONNECTIONS project I thought it might be prudent to gather up what I could of any biographical and/or historical info out there that would relate to this rather famous fellow. What jumped out at me, which I had either overlooked or dismissed as a younger person, was his extensive interest in, and promotion of, new music. With his marriage to his second wife Natalie, Koussevitsky became associated with a very wealthy family, and was now able to pursue quite a few interests. Among these was the establishment of a music publishing business with which he actively encouraged composers to write new works, and he published much of their contemporary music, later setting up a foundation (in his late wife Natalie’s honour) to fund high profile performances of these new works. If one would stop for a moment or two to consider the many reason a person might have an interest in new compositions, we would expect to find near the top of that list “new sounds” - new sonorities, new timbres, new ways of playing instruments – and this is what caught my attention. “Horizons” is played primarily in the highest register (using harmonics) of the bass (while still making occasional use of the instrument’s lowest tones), utilises a somewhat ambiguous modality, and makes use of random metre and tempo changes - none of which would have be shocking a century ago, but might still have been thought to be a bit out of the norm, and maybe even new. [Michael Montgomery]

Horizons was premiered by David Heyes at West Stockbridge Congregational Church (West Stockbridge, MA USA) on Saturday 27 April 2024

6. Mary Rae (USA) - Miniature Landscape I thought of the different worlds Serge Koussevitsky inhabited, from Russia to Boston, and imagined that memories of places left behind might have broken through what was his 'here and now,' so that two worlds existed at one time. This is what I wanted to convey. Miniature Landscape is written in D minor and has a duration of around one minute and forty seconds. [Mary Rae]

Miniature Landscape was premiered by Holly Reinhardt at Old North Church, Marblehead MA, USA on Friday 26 April 2024

7. P. Kellach Waddle (USA) - Winters Moscow; Winters Boston When my dear friend David Heyes invited me to contribute to another one of his group consortiums, this time with pieces dedicated to the famed bassist and conductor Serge Koussevitsky, I thought of the places Koussevitsky was famed for living, and I went to a well I often like to write about, and that is the idea of ironically painting sound pictures for solo bass of biting winter. The result this time is this piece reflecting on the dire cold felt in winters in the two cities of Boston and Moscow. A tremolo quasi ponticello motive recurs ( of course representing ice and shivering) as does a somewhat longing melodic section as well as a third forceful pizzicato idea representing the fierce unrelenting freeze that can be felt in places indeed like Moscow and Boston in the winter months. These three ideas trade off and recur until the final measures where the tremolo motive appears again but this time in a note sequence that quotes in three different octaves the opening motive of Koussevitsky's famous Bass Concerto. Dark pizzicatos representing a cold individual finally relenting to the chill end the piece. [P. Kellach Waddle]

Winters Moscow; Winters Boston was premiered by Johnny Levine at Berklee College of Music (Boston, USA) on Thursday 25 April 2024.