Virtuoso bassist Edwin Barker has selected one eighteenth century concerto and three modern works for his 2005 release with Gunther Schuller and the Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra, but this disproportion only reflects the instrument's skewed repertoire, not an eccentric sense of programming. Johann Baptist Vanhal's Concerto in D major is an unusual work for its time, and the composer's use of the double bass likely struck his contemporaries as a highly impractical, if not a mad, choice. Yet the piece is delightfully sunny and ...
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Virtuoso bassist Edwin Barker has selected one eighteenth century concerto and three modern works for his 2005 release with Gunther Schuller and the Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra, but this disproportion only reflects the instrument's skewed repertoire, not an eccentric sense of programming. Johann Baptist Vanhal's Concerto in D major is an unusual work for its time, and the composer's use of the double bass likely struck his contemporaries as a highly impractical, if not a mad, choice. Yet the piece is delightfully sunny and sanely organized according to Classical norms, and can be regarded as a perfectly fine vehicle for the double bass, without apologies that it is not Mozart. The modern pieces, however, are a little harder to embrace, and though Barker's vigorous performances are first-rate, the pieces themselves are variable. Theodor Antoniou's pop-inflected Concertino is certainly energetic and technically challenging, but the music is rather mechanical and emotionally aloof. Schuller's Concerto is a...
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