(b Crema, 22 Dec 1821; d Parma, 7 July 1889). Italian double bass player,conductor and composer. He studied at the Milan Conservatory, became principal bass at the Teatro S Benedetto, Venice, and toured in Europe and North America. Playing a three-string instrument tuned a tone higher than was usual, he was nicknamed the ‘Paganini of the double bass’ for his agility, pure tone and intonation. He was a lifelong friend of Verdi and held conducting appointments at theatres in Paris, Palermo, Spain, Portugal and London. Among his stage works, Vinciguerra il bandito (1870) and Ero e Leandro (1879, libretto by Boito) were well received. It is for his numerous technically demanding double bass compositions, expanding the instrument's compass, that he is best remembered.
Giovanni Bottesini was one of the foremost virtuoso double bass players in history and a major contributor to the development of the technique of that instrument. His compositions are also the foundation of the rather small repertoire for that instrument.
His father, Pietro, was a clarinetist and minor composer, and the boy learned the basics of music from him. He sang in local choirs and played timpani in the opera theater orchestra. He studied violin with Carlo Cogliati, a leading violinist in town.
On learning that there were two scholarships at the Milan Conservatory, one for a bassoon student and the other for a bass player, Giovanni applied himself to learning the later instrument. By mid-summer he had mastered it will enough to earn the scholarship. He studied bass with Luigi Rossi, and also took harmony, counterpoint, and composition, from 1835 to 1839. When he graduated he won a prize equivalent to 300 francs for his playing. With some of it he bought a Giuseppe Testore bass, a rather small instrument that was designed for chamber playing. Legend has it that he found it in a puppet theater lying under a pile of trash. He used only three strings, tuned higher than normal, and adopted the French-style bow. With this bass, he had a successful debut at the Teatro Comunale in Crema in 1840. This led to several engagements in Italy. He also was principal bass of the Teatro San Benedetto of Venice. When the theater produced Verdi's I due Foscari, he became a close friend of the great opera composer.
Bottesini also began composing. With his friend Luigi Arditi, he went to Havana, Cuba, where he was the principal bass player of the Teatro Tacón there. While he was there, it premiered his opera Cristoforo Colombo. From there he went to the United States through New Orleans and made a sensation touring through the country to New York. He was such a celebrity that a jeweler became rich off of a pin designed in Bottesini's likeness. When he traveled to England in 1849, he successfully toured and made a major hit in London, where he played both the bass and the cello in different works. He was nicknamed the "Paganini of the double bass." He continued to tour widely, as far as St Petersburg and Mexico City.
With the assistance of Verdi, he also began acquiring jobs as a conductor (he conducted the world premiere of Verdi's Aida in Cairo, at the opening of the Suez Canal in 1871) and was able to spend more of his time in composition and conducting. His operas were quite well received, and he wrote popular pieces of chamber music. Aside from his double bass works, his compositions are rarely heard now.
Bottesini died shortly after being nominated director of the Parma Conservatory. ~ Joseph Stevenson, All Music Guide
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 in Crema with the Teatro Sociale before the age of eleven. He studied violin 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, but due to the Bottesini family's lack of money, a scholarship was required. Only two 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 francs for solo playing. This money financed the acquisition of an instrument of Carlo Antonio Testore, and a globe-trotting career as "the Paganini of the Double Bass" was launched. On leaving Milan he spent some time in America 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, 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.
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, I Puritani and Beatrice di Tenda are virtuosic tours de force that are still popular with those who are highly accomplished on the instrument.
In 1861 and 1862 he conducted at Palermo, supervising the production of his opera Marion Delorme in 1862, and in 1863 at Barcelona. During these years he diversified the toils of conducting by repeated concert tours through the principal countries of 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 at the close of the year he was chosen by Verdi to conduct the first performance of Aida, which took place at Cairo on December 27, 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 by Arrigo Boito, which was subsequently set by Luigi Mancinelli. He also wrote The Garden of Olivet, a devotional oratorio (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 concertos for solo double-bass, the Gran Duo Concertante (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 the 7th of 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 and Dragonetti) 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 five. Eventually, it was changed back to a four-string configuration and is now in the possession of Franco Petracchi. 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.
Adagio melanconico appassionato (Elegie par Ernst)
Allegretto-Capriccio
Allegro Di Concerto "Alla Mendelssohn" (aka "Gran Allegro")
Aria da Bach
Auld Robin Gray
Barber of Seville
Bolero
Capriccio Di Bravura
Carnival of Venice
Cerrito
Concertino
Concerto Di Bravura
Concerto for Violoncello and double bass G major
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
Variations on the aria "Nel cor piu non mi sento" (by Giovanni Paisiello)
Operas (Complete)
Colón en Cuba (Cristoforo Colombo) - Opera in one act. Spanish Libretto by Ramon de Palma. Tacón Theatre Havana January 31, 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
Sacred Works
Garden of Olivet
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 August 25, 1863
Three melodies - Cello and piano, Autographed score, Milan
Rêverie - Cello and piano, Autographed score, Naples
