Known as the Paganini of the double bass, Bottesini made tremendous contributions to bass repertoire and technique. He was a virtuoso bass player, composer, and conductor, just like one of our other notable contributors, Serge Koussevitzky. Bottesini was most notably an opera conductor, which was a large influence on his compositions. Not only did he write some of his own operas, many of his bass show pieces are fantasies on themes from bel canto operas. Most often played by bass players, is his second concerto in B minor. While this concerto doesn’t feature any themes from opera, I use all of the previously mentioned information to interpret this piece. When I perform this piece, I want to emulate a singer, and take time and play with rubato the same way a singer would. Allegro moderato is the tempo of the first movement. Oftentimes this movement is played on the faster side, but I think the moderato part is important to take into consideration. Playing it on that side of tempo gives that flexibility and freedom with the phrasing. Although you can play this strictly in time and it would be technically correct, I don’t think that’s what the music calls for. In my personal opinion, and you may have heard me say this before, the technique is not the end goal. As artists, the bow, bass, music, etc. are merely the tools. It's what you do with those tools that makes the music, or the art special.
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