Description
Giovanni Bottesini enjoyed a globe-trotting career as \the Paganini of the double bass. He was also a successful conductor and a composer, although only the music he wrote for his own instrument has outlived him. Many of the works on this recording emphasize the essential 'bel canto' quality of Bottesini s inspiration, most explicitly in the dazzling Bellini 'Fantasia', but also in the duets with clarinet and soprano which demand virtuosity of both feeling and technique. The 'Concerto No. 2' is a fully mature work, from the somewhat laconic first movement, through the simply singing second, to the third, driven by a rhythmic figure typical of the polonaise and the Cuban bolero.""