"Basics" by Koussevitzky and Meyer

Synopsis

The double bass is the largest and certainly the most-unwieldy of all stringed instruments, designed to provide the lowest notes of any ensemble. Even so, occasionally the double bass gets a chance to shine as a solo instrument.

On today's date in 1905, a double-bass Concerto received its premiere performance in Moscow, with its composer Serge Kousevitzky as the soloist. Truth be told, Kousevitzky is much more famous as a conductor and musical patron than as a composer, and Kousevitzky's compatriot, the Russian composer Reinhold Gliere, helped arrange and score Kouzevitzky's Concerto, which many suggest sounds suspiciously like concertos for other instruments by Tchaikovsky and Dvořák. Be that as it may, Koussevitzky's concerto remains the most famous of all double-bass concertos, but that situation may change...

The American composer and double-bassist Edgar Meyer has already composed several concertos and chamber works for his instrument. In 1993, Meyer premiered his Bass Concerto in 1993 with Edo de Waart and the Minnesota Orchestra, and in 1995 he gave the first performance of this music, his Quintet for Bass and String Quartet, with the Emerson String Quartet.

The work of composer AND performer Edgar Meyer can also be sampled on the best-selling Sony Classical disc titled "Appalachian Waltz," a collaboration with fiddler Mark O'Connor and cellist Yo-Yo Ma.

Music Played in Today's Program

Serge Koussevitsky (1874 - 1951) Doublebass Concerto Gary Karr, double bass; Berlin Radio Symphony; Uros Lajovic, cond. Koch-Schwann 11063

Edgar Meyer (b. 1960) Quintet Edgar Meyer, double bass; Emerson String Quartet DG 453 506

On This Day

Births

• 1727 - French composer and organist Armand-Louis Couperin, in Paris;

• 1943 - George Harrison (of the Beatles), in Liverpool, England;

Deaths

• 1643 - Italian composer Marco da Gagliano, age 60, in Florence;

• 1682 - Italian composer Alessandro Stradella, age 37, is murdered in Genoa, apparently in retaliation for running off with a Venetian nobleman's mistress;

• 1906 - Russian composer Anton Arensky, age 44, in a tuberculosis sanatorium in Terijoki, Finland (Julian date: Feb. 12);

Premieres

• 1705 - Handel: opera "Nero," in Hamburg; This was Handel's second opera;

• 1850 - R. Schumann: "Concertstück (Concert Piece)" for Four Horns and Orchestra, by the horn quartet of Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Julius Rietz conducting that orchestra;

• 1877 - Tchaikovsky: symphonic-fantasy “Fancesca da Rimini,” in Moscow (Gregorian date: Mar. 9);

• 1881 - Tchaikovsky: opera “The Maid or Orleans,” at the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg (Julian date: Feb. 13);

• 1888 - Benjamin Godard: opera "Jocelyn," in Brussels;

• 1905 - Koussevitzky: Double-Bass Concerto, in Moscow, with the composer as soloist (Julian date: Feb. 12);

• 1911 - Victor Herbert: opera "Natoma.", in Philadelphia;

• 1932 - Carl Ruggles: "Sun-Treader" for orchestra, by the Paris Symphony, Nicholas Slonimsky conducting;

• 1973 - Broadway premiere of Sondheim: musical "A Little Night Music"

• 1993 - Ellen Taaffe Zwilich: Symphony No. 3, by the New York Philharmonic, Jahja Ling conducting;

• 2001 - Robert Capanna: String Quartet No. 2, in Philadelphia, by the Mendelssohn String Quartet.