Giovanni Bottesini: Reverie (Advanced) for double bass & piano

About the Composition

Bottesini’s Reverie is at the heart of the solo repertoire today but was probably only arranged for the double bass in the 1950s. Originally a song for voice and piano (Quando cadran le foglie), composed in Naples on 6 March 1879 and then published in Nice in a version for cello or violin and piano, it was probably never played by Bottesini and is described by Chris West as “one of his most inspired melodies”.

This new advanced edition, arranged to celebrate the bicentenary of Bottesini’s birth in 2021, is based on the violin/cello version and is a 4th higher than other published editions.

Reverie is lyrical and evocative, essentially a ‘song without words’ and is ideal for the advanced bassist who is confident throughout the solo register of the double bass. The music is passionate and dramatic, tender and poignant, and is a wonderful introduction to Bottesini’s world of lyrical and melodic solos.

This edition includes piano accompaniments for both solo and orchestral tunings. It also includes solo parts for violin and cello who should use the accompaniment in A minor - marked as Solo Tuning.

"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]

Intermediate Edition

An intermediate edition, edited by David Heyes, is also available and included in the bundle.

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.