Reverie
Violin or Violoncello & Piano
Composer: Giovanni Bottesini
Product code:
RMD1219
Publisher: Recital Music
£5.00
Description
Bottesini’s Reverie is at the heart of the solo double bass repertoire today but was probably only arranged for the instrument 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 but is described by Chris West as “one of his most inspired melodies”.
Reverie is lyrical and evocative, essentially a ‘song without words’. The music is passionate and dramatic, tender and poignant, and is a wonderful introduction into Bottesini’s world of lyrical and melodic solos.
“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]
Description
Bottesini’s Reverie is at the heart of the solo double bass repertoire today but was probably only arranged for the instrument 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 but is described by Chris West as “one of his most inspired melodies”.
Reverie is lyrical and evocative, essentially a ‘song without words’. The music is passionate and dramatic, tender and poignant, and is a wonderful introduction into Bottesini’s world of lyrical and melodic solos.
“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]
