Giovanni Bottesini was an Italian Romantic

Romantic music

Romantic music or music in the Romantic Period is a musicological and artistic term referring to a particular period, theory, compositional practice, and canon in Western music history, from 1810 to 1900....

 composer

Composer

A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...

, conductor

Conducting

Conducting is the art of directing a musical performance by way of visible gestures. The primary duties of the conductor are to unify performers, set the tempo, execute clear preparations and beats, and to listen critically and shape the sound of the ensemble...

, and a double bass

Double bass

The double bass, also called the string bass, upright bass, standup bass or contrabass, is the largest and lowest-pitched bowed string instrument in the modern symphony orchestra, with strings usually tuned to E1, A1, D2 and G2...

 virtuoso

Virtuoso

A virtuoso is an individual who possesses outstanding technical ability in the fine arts, at singing or playing a musical instrument. The plural form is either virtuosi or the Anglicisation, virtuosos, and the feminine form sometimes used is virtuosa...

.

Biography

Born in Crema, Lombardy, he was taught the rudiments of music by his father, an accomplished clarinetist and composer, at a young age and had played timpani

Timpani

Timpani, or kettledrums, are musical instruments in the percussion family. A type of drum, they consist of a skin called a head stretched over a large bowl traditionally made of copper. They are played by striking the head with a specialized drum stick called a timpani stick or timpani mallet...

 in Crema with the Teatro Sociale before the age of eleven. He studied violin

Violin

The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....

 with Carlo Cogliati, and would have most likely continued on this instrument except for a unique turn of events. His father sought a place for him in the Milan Conservatory

Milan Conservatory

The Milan Conservatory is a college of music which was established by a royal decree of 1807 in Milan, capital of the Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy. It opened the following year with premises in the cloisters of the Baroque church of Santa Maria della Passione. There were initially 18 boarders,...

, but due to the Bottesini family's lack of money, Bottesini needed a scholarship. Only two positions were available: double bass and bassoon. He prepared a successful audition for the double bass scholarship in a matter of weeks. At the conservatory, he studied with Luigi Rossi, to whom he would later dedicate his Tre grandi duetti per contrabasso. Only four years later, a surprisingly short time by the standards of the day, he left with a prize of 300 franc

Franc

The franc is the name of several currency units, most notably the Swiss franc, still a major world currency today due to the prominence of Swiss financial institutions and the former currency of France, the French franc until the Euro was adopted in 1999...

s for solo playing. This money financed the acquisition of an instrument of Carlo Antonio Testore, and a globe-trotting career as "the Paganini

Niccolò Paganini

Niccolò Paganini was an Italian violinist, violist, guitarist, and composer. He was one of the most celebrated violin virtuosi of his time, and left his mark as one of the pillars of modern violin technique...

 of the Double Bass" was launched. On leaving Milan he spent some time in America

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 and also occupied the position of principal double-bass in the theatre at Havana. Here his first opera, Cristoforo Colombo, was produced in 1847.

In 1849 he made his first appearance in England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

, playing double bass solos at one of the Musical Union concerts. After this he made frequent visits to England, and his extraordinary command of his unwieldy instrument gained him great popularity in London and the provinces. Apart from his triumphs as a performer, Bottesini was a conductor of European reputation, and was conductor at the Théâtre des Italiens in Paris from 1855 to 1857 where his second opera, L'Assedio di Firenze, was produced in 1856.
Bottesini was a free-mason, initiated June 20, 1849 in the Bank of England Lodge No. 263, London.

When conducting opera, Bottesini would frequently bring his double bass on stage during the intermission to play fantasies on the evening's opera. His Fantasies on Lucia di Lammermoor

Lucia di Lammermoor

Lucia di Lammermoor is a dramma tragico in three acts by Gaetano Donizetti. Salvadore Cammarano wrote the Italian language libretto loosely based upon Sir Walter Scott's historical novel The Bride of Lammermoor....

, I puritani

I puritani

I puritani is an opera in three acts by Vincenzo Bellini. It was his last opera. Its libretto is by Count Carlo Pepoli, based on Têtes rondes et Cavaliers by Jacques-François Ancelot and Joseph Xavier Saintine, which is in turn based on Walter Scott's novel Old Mortality. It was first produced at...

and Beatrice di Tenda

Beatrice di Tenda

Beatrice di Tenda is a tragic opera in two acts by Vincenzo Bellini, from a libretto by Felice Romani, after the play of the same name by Carlo Tedaldi-Fores...

are virtuosic tours de force that are still popular with those who are highly accomplished on the instrument.

In 1861 and 1862 he conducted in Palermo, supervising the production of his opera Marion Delorme in 1862, and in 1863 in Barcelona. During these years he diversified the toils of conducting by repeated concert tours through Europe. In 1871 he conducted a season of Italian opera at the Lyceum theatre in London, during which his opera Ali Babà was produced, and he was chosen by Verdi

Giuseppe Verdi

Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi was an Italian Romantic composer, mainly of opera. He was one of the most influential composers of the 19th century...

 to conduct the first performance of Aida

Aida

Aida sometimes spelled Aïda, is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Antonio Ghislanzoni, based on a scenario written by French Egyptologist Auguste Mariette...

, which took place at Cairo on 27 December 1871.

Bottesini wrote three operas besides those previously mentioned: Il Diavolo della Notte (Milan, 1859); Vinciguerra (Paris, 1870); and Ero e Leandro (Turin, 1880), the last named to a libretto

Libretto

A libretto is the text used in an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata, or musical. The term "libretto" is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major liturgical works, such as mass, requiem, and sacred cantata, or even the story line of a...

 by Arrigo Boito

Arrigo Boito

Arrigo Boito , aka Enrico Giuseppe Giovanni Boito, pseudonym Tobia Gorrio, was an Italian poet, journalist, novelist and composer, best known today for his libretti, especially those for Giuseppe Verdi's operas Otello and Falstaff, and his own opera Mefistofele...

, which was subsequently set by Luigi Mancinelli

Luigi Mancinelli

Luigi Mancinelli was a leading Italian orchestral conductor. He also composed music for the stage and concert hall and played the cello....

. He also wrote The Garden of Olivet, a devotional oratorio

Oratorio

An oratorio is a large musical composition including an orchestra, a choir, and soloists. Like an opera, an oratorio includes the use of a choir, soloists, an ensemble, various distinguishable characters, and arias...

 (libretto by Joseph Bennett), which was produced at the Norwich festival in 1887, eleven string quartets, a quintet for string quartet and double bass, and many works for the double bass, including two concerto

Concerto

A concerto is a musical work usually composed in three parts or movements, in which one solo instrument is accompanied by an orchestra.The etymology is uncertain, but the word seems to have originated from the conjunction of the two Latin words...

s for solo double bass, the Gran Duo Concertante

Gran Duo Concertante

The Gran Duo Concertante was composed by the Italian double bass virtuoso Giovanni Bottesini in 1880. Originally written for two double basses and orchestra, the piece was premiered by Bottesini and Luigi Negri, a former classmate of the composer...

 (originally) for two double basses, Passione Amorosa for two double basses, and numerous pieces for double bass and piano.

Shortly before his death, in 1888 he was appointed director of Parma Conservatory on Verdi's recommendation. Bottesini died in Parma on 7 July 1889. His solo works remain standard repertoire for accomplished double bassists to this day.

The Paganini of the double bass

Bottesini was widely acclaimed, and his virtuosic skill in the bass paralleled that of Paganini himself on the violin. Because of the contributions of Bottesini (along with those of Sperger

Johannes Matthias Sperger

Johannes Matthias Sperger, also often Johann, was an Austrian contrabassist and composer....

 and Dragonetti

Domenico Dragonetti

Domenico Carlo Maria Dragonetti was an Italian double bass virtuoso and composer. He stayed for thirty years in his hometown of Venice, Italy and worked at the Opera Buffa, at the Chapel of San Marco and at the Grand Opera in Vicenza...

) to bass technique, many have come to view the double bass as a diverse and versatile instrument. Most notably there are many virtuoso bass players who draw inspiration from the early renaissance of the double bass.

Bottesini's bass was said to be a unique instrument with a remarkable sound. It was built by Carlo Antonio Testore in 1716. The instrument was owned by several unknown bass players. It nearly met its end in the 1830s as it sat backstage in a marionette theater in Milan. Bottesini purchased the Testore in 1838 for 900 lire. The Testore bass was later converted back to a four-stringed instrument, and then to a three. Eventually, it was changed back to a four-string configuration and is now in the possession of a private collector in Japan. Bottesini was also one of the first performers to adopt the French-style bow grip for the double bass. This style was previously used solely by violinists and violists. Now, the style is as common as the German-style bow grip.

Selected works for solo double bass

• Adagio melanconico e appassionato
• Allegretto Capriccio "Alla Chopin"
• Allegro di Concerto "Alla Mendelssohn" (aka "Gran Allegro")
• Capriccio di Bravura
• Concerto No. 1 in F# Minor for Double Bass and Orchestra (also known as concerto for students in some publications/arrangements/lower transpositions, studienkonzert in German publications)
• Concerto No. 2 in B Minor for Double Bass and Orchestra
• Concerto di Bravura (called Concerto No. 3 by some publishers)
• Gran Duo Concertante
  Gran Duo Concertante
  The Gran Duo Concertante was composed by the Italian double bass virtuoso Giovanni Bottesini in 1880. Originally written for two double basses and orchestra, the piece was premiered by Bottesini and Luigi Negri, a former classmate of the composer...
  
  
• Elegia in re no. 1
• Elegia No. 2, "Romanza Drammatica"
• Elegia No. 3, "Romanza Patetica"
• Fantasia sulla "Beatrice di Tenda" di Bellini
  Vincenzo Bellini
  Vincenzo Salvatore Carmelo Francesco Bellini was an Italian opera composer. His greatest works are I Capuleti ed i Montecchi , La sonnambula , Norma , Beatrice di Tenda , and I puritani...
  
  
• Fantasia sulla "Cerrito"
• Fantasia sulla "La Sonnambula" di Bellini
• Fantasia sulla "Norma" di Bellini
• Gran Duo Passione Amorosa per due contrabassi
• Introduzione e Bolero
• Introduzione e Gavotta
• Introduzione e Variazione di "Carnivale di Venezia" di Rossini
• Meditazione (Aria di Bach) (an arrangement of the Air from Bach
  Johann Sebastian Bach
  Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer, organist, harpsichordist, violist, and violinist whose sacred and secular works for choir, orchestra, and solo instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque period and brought it to its ultimate maturity...
  
  's Orchestral Suite in D major)
• Melodia No. 1
• Melodia No. 2
• Rêverie (originally for violoncello and orchestra)
• Tarantella in la minore (frequently paired with Elegia No. 1 and referred to as Elegia e Tarantella. Numerous manuscripts by Bottesini himself show that these two pieces were clearly intended to be performed together)
• Tre gran due per contrabassi
• Variazione sulla "Nel cor più non mi sento
  Nel cor più non mi sento
  "Nel cor più non mi sento" is a soprano aria from act 2 in Giovanni Paisiello's 1788 opera L'amor contrastato, ossia La molinara, usually known as La molinara....
  
  " di Paisiello
  Giovanni Paisiello
  Giovanni Paisiello was an Italian composer of the Classical era.-Life:Paisiello was born at Taranto and educated by the Jesuits there. He became known for his beautiful singing voice and in 1754 was sent to the Conservatorio di S. Onofrio at Naples, where he studied under Francesco Durante, and...
  
  

Operas (complete)

• Colón en Cuba (Cristoforo Colombo) – opera in one act. Spanish libretto by Ramon de Palma. Tacón Theatre Havana, 31 January 1848. No known score remains.
• L'assedio di Firenze (1856)
• Il Diavolo della Notte (1858)
• Marion Delorme (1862)
• Un amour en Bavière
• Vinciguerra il bandito (1870)
• Alì Babà (1871)
• Ero e Leandro (1879)
• Cedar (1880)
• La regina del Nepal (1880)
• Nerina
• La figlia dell'angelo o Azäele
• Babele

Instrumental music not including the solo double bass

• Morceaux – Viola and piano, Autographed score, Naples
• Rêverie – Viola and piano, Autographed score, Naples
• Capriccio – Cello and piano, Autographed score, Milan, 25 August 1863
• Three melodies – Cello and piano, Autographed score, Milan
• Rêverie – Cello and piano, Autographed score, Naples
• At least 11 String Quartets
• Gran quintetto in do minore

Other chamber music

• Tutto il mondo serra – soprano, double bass and piano
• Un Bacio solo – soprano, double bass and piano
• Guardami ancor – soprano, double bass and piano
• È il pianto del mio cor – soprano, double bass and piano
• Canta Roberto! – soprano, double bass and piano
• Retourner a la paix des champs – soprano, double bass and piano
• Une bouche Aimée – soprano, double bass and piano
• Duetto – clarinet, double bass and piano

External links

• bottesini.com
• gbottesini.com